Month: April 2015

Ramp It Up

Leave a comment

Back in the truck and it got a little crowded.  Why? Because we got what every girl dreams of,  a mini fridge.  The driver and  I couldn’t wait the 24 hours  per owner manual suggestions.  We loaded it primarily with fluids and in the nick of time Arizona is hot Flagstaff Phoenix and Tucson . Now I can offer my parched guests tea or water.  In few days we are going to Baltimore Maryland and I recalled a move we did last year, from there to California.  A row of narrow and deep houses all attached to each other.  The neighborhood I was in was conducive to being at least cordial if not neighborly.  We had 3 young guys working to help us pack and load. We chatted during lunch and all three said “There is no work”  now I look back and feel for those guys especially now.   I will never understand what it is to be their shoes.  2 young fellows ” Weezy and Keys” both
image


with kids and an older gentleman.   The driver paid them well and everyone was happy. The shipper asked if she could give us her food in fridge and it pleased  me to observe the 2 younger guys in agreement, to give most of it to the older helper, as if they knew who needed it more. Zia jian

Catatonic

Leave a comment

At the eleventh hour Mika will live out the rest of her years at a nice persons home. With 2 German Shepherds and another cat.  I may not have handled this whole catastrophe with grace or a  good attitude but God knew the pain I had. Now as I go to Las Vegas to celebrate a friends birthday I will also  celebrate how I went from pet owner to pet guardian.

image

Posted from WordPress for Android

Catnap

3 Comments

My dilemma with my cat has caused great  sorrow. I received the following text “what’s up with the cat?”    I replied I’ll go there today. Meaning my mom’s pad  “Do you want me to take the cat?” My friend said. This I where I got myself in big bad spot as I assumed she meant she going to take my cat. And she is  but to a vet. And maybe this vet will keep her for a while and maybe he won’t.  The driver said a cat will  not do well in a truck given she is older and ” when we are not in the cab for several days she can’t just live there. She, said cat, has a cattitude. I got her when my ex husband brought her home one day and because she was from a feral set and ugly no one wanted her  but us. 17 years later she essentially just eats and lays around.  I called about 12 cat related offers of help. No one wants an old cat. A humane shelter that is “no kill”  will in fact do that. The gal over the phone in a calloused response “ya we will put her to sleep in a week”. For 5 thousand dollars I can take a 3 hour drive and she can live out the rest of her 9 lives.  Here’s lies the rub she is not your average cat she had the cord wrapped around her twice when she was born she a little off. I don’t like her but I love her.

image

.

Posted from WordPress for Android

WEATHER OR NOT 

1 Comment

 I remember a trivia question from long ago, “Which state has the most Tornadoes?” . Most said Kansas some said Oklahoma. Texas is the state for having the greatest number of Tornadoes.  Passing thru Texas just outside of Fort Worth the rain and wind reminded me of that fact.  I was scared  while the winds  caused the truck to rock back and forth and when I looked out the window I saw the American flag just stopped high up on a pole and this ominous sign was a clear signal.  We pulled over I saw plenty of debri blowing all around. The lighting did nothing to squelch my fears, and I was ready for something  that never came.  Later and further down the road I shared with driver that my thoughts have been like the weather and I was not looking forward to facing my cat dilemma and the anger I’ve been holding on to.  The driver tells me “You gotta let that shit go” headed west I gonna keep singing  that Frozen song. 


I Think I Want To Ikea Myself

1 Comment

 Long time ago when someone would ask what is your house furnished like.  I replied ” Early IKEA” not mid century modern or  contemporary style because I was just out of college when I bought my first condo.  All 427 square feet of it.  So today a youngster (anyone born in the 90’s) had an apartment with  majority of the substantial pieces being from that store.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy going in the store and getting trapped  both in body and mind, something takes over and you have  convinced yourself you need a 4 X 6 mural of New York Iron building  somewhere in your house.   Taking apart an Ivar system is one thing but putting back together requires history with it.  I felt vindicated when the driver told the shipper that items from this store are meant to be put together but probably never moved again.  We are in the business of moving “Liatorp” and 175 pieces, pegs, and  thinga majigs later we  are expected to put it back together.  IKEA has single handedly separated the Americans from the Scandinavians.  “Ouch damn it I just stepped on a peg”.  I just wanna Ikea myself

Falling in Love with the South

1 Comment

 I asked the shipper “May I take pictures of your backyard.” This part of the country is growing on me.  In the best way you are forced to recognize Mother Earth and all her glory.  The gal whom we met today shared about the does and fawns that pepper her backyard,  very early in the am, to dine on the grass and the bucks who are solitary creatures that do not accompany the deer.  Then you have hop back in the truck and the repose I feel can not be replicated with a beer or winning a big hand at Poker. It’s simply confirms that I am visitor and this world is not mine but mine to enjoy if I choose. And I feel lucky and blessed.   Kennesaw Georgia. 

 

Laundry Lady.

1 Comment

image

$2.25 per cycle in the laundry room here in the ATL Petro in Atlanta Georgia. Spring  showers outside makes a nice go of things.   6 loads sure beats folding 280 moving pads. Driver asks 3 locals 100.00 bucks to fold. One of the guys says “each? ” driver tells him “F*** you”. I guess that how they talk to each other, so the two stay behind and get paid. You see sometimes you just don’t want to fold pads and since it doesn’t happen often paying seems reasonable.  Meanwhile I got to contend with “dirty old man truck driver” that is trying to engage me in conversation just so he can “go there”. No takers buddy!. I avert his eyes and pretend I don’t hear him when he asks me if they said “naked” on TV. I say “I hear the Pope is coming to Philadelphia” and that does the trick. He changes his way and I helped him fold his Kirkland T-shirts. And he says to use certain dryer because it’ll give you extra time.  Pays to ignore then be nice.  It also pays to look in between the machine because eighty five cent  gave me extra time to stay in my most favorite place..not really.  Zia Jian

Posted from WordPress for Android

Tony Orlando and Dawn.

2 Comments

Florida and the truck is parked in Orlando.  “100 gallons of fuel a day” I’m listening to the driver chatting with his uncle. We got lucky since family is here. I got to sleep in a normal bed had a  shower and watched TV.  It feels good to be back in the truck though, and it dawned on me that “the shift” (mental change outlook) is here in the most subtle ways. For example,  I now like sleeping in tight quarters.  I prefer it over spacious accommodations I view dirt and grime not as an enemy but a necessary evil. I observe more and ask less because the answer will come. And as much as I desire the beach and ocean spray I have learn to enjoy other things like the “Superior Live Stock Auction” 6k gets you 29 feeder steers. So cheers to “blonde bucks and good boogers” auction talk for healthiness.

image

Posted from WordPress for Android

Bro Code

Leave a comment

This is a case about how friends over time become family.  I had a timely situation where I had to work during day go to a home and repair all kinds of stuff and get out b4 the new tenants move in. Who ya gonna call “Ghostbusters”.  So we had move a newer type of washer and dryer, abandoned by the previous tenant, to an upstairs room. I called the driver and got the best of what it takes to “get her done” But no my bro had me doing opposite.  He had the best intention (machine gravity thing) things got a little heated and Venus said to Mars let’s do it this way and if it does not work we’ll try you way.  It worked out. At dinner I apologized for wigging out and Ruben said “your my sister don’t worry about it” How wonderful was that.  My bro has never let me down and the past 3 days  showed up with coffee a good attitude and tools to “get her done”.

image

Posted from WordPress for Android