Stalker's Eye Gets Stuck In Window...
Tom reviews the movie Unbreakable with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson Directed by M. Night Shyamalan Director of The Sixth Sense. The links for today's show are:
Click Here For The Website Hosting Offer my new website host gears it's service towards podcasters
Learn Step-By-Step How To Create Your Own Podcast How to create your own podcast
http://tomsmoviereviews.blogspot.com my video movie reviews
http://www.truckerphoto.com/ my main website
http://truckertom.blogspot.com/ "Tom's Take" political blog
tom@truckerphoto.com and tomwiles@mailblocks.com Tom's email addresses
Finally, send your pod-safe non-RIAA music download recommendation links
Be safe!
TOM
Elephant Steps On Baby...
Tom reviews the movie White Noise starring Michael Keaton. The links for today's show are:
Click Here For The Website Hosting Offer my new website host gears it's
service towards podcasters
Learn Step-By-Step How To Create Your Own Podcast How to create your own podcast
http://tomsmoviereviews.blogspot.com my video movie reviews
http://www.truckerphoto.com/
my main website
http://truckertom.blogspot.com/ "Tom's Take" political blog
tom@truckerphoto.com and tomwiles@mailblocks.com Tom's email addresses
Finally, send your pod-safe non-RIAA music download recommendation links
Be safe!
TOM
Trucker Gets Abducted By Space Alien...
The topics of today's show include the future of telephone companies, plays the song "Radiapathy" by the The Velvet Teen, and yet another experiment with a different microphone. The links for today's show are:
Click Here For The Website Hosting Offer my new website host gears it's
service towards podcasters
Learn Step-By-Step How To Create Your Own Podcast How to create your own podcast
http://tomsmoviereviews.blogspot.com my video movie reviews
http://www.truckerphoto.com/
my main website
http://truckertom.blogspot.com/ "Tom's Take" political blog
tom@truckerphoto.com and tomwiles@mailblocks.com Tom's email addresses
http://www.matthewlilley.com/ guy behind "Band of Apathetics"
Finally, send your pod-safe non-RIAA music download recommendation links
Be safe!
TOM
Made it home for a few days off work...
After I spent the night at Manteno, Illinois, they sent me to Edwardsville, Illinois to pick up a load going to Lubbock, Texas. On my way to Edwardsville, Illinois my fleet manager sent me a message telling me that I'd be dropping the load at the Elm Springs, Arkansas yard since the load had too much time on it before the delivery appointment. I was due to come home on January 27th, so I decided it was close enough for me to simply take time off now rather than fighting with going back out for only six or seven days and then trying to get back to Arkansas.
I got home Friday morning around 7:30 AM. Since I'd been up driving all night, I decided I would just go ahead and stay up the rest of the day rather than take a nap. I got a little drowsy, but I managed to stay up okay.
Friday was beautiful here in Northwest Arkansas -- it was around 75 degrees with a clear sky. The weather changed overnight. Today (Saturday) it was not much above freezing with a very intense wind.
I spent most of today here at the house. I did manage to post a new show to my Internet radio show located at http://jiexk.blogspot.com/. I also paid the month's bills.
When I was home last time right before I left in the truck I had a furnace repairman come out to the house and repair my furnace. I paid the repairman a check for close to $400 dollars. For some weird reason, the check has YET to clear and it's coming up on a month. Either something weird happened, or the guy is carrying the check around in his pocket -- who knows? I'll just keep counting the check as being un-cleared and hope that it eventually clears.
January 19, 2004 At Manteno, Illinois
I unloaded early Tuesday morning at Hanover, Pennsylvania. It was around 3:00 AM in the morning when I got there. The weather was bitter cold -- it was about 10 degrees above zero with a stiff breeze, making things pretty miserable.
After I got unloaded I slept until around 3:00 PM. I had to drive to Carlisle, Pennsylvania to get my trailer washed out. Afterwards, I drove to Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania and dropped off the empty trailer and picked up a loaded one going to Manteno, Illinois.
I made it to Clearfield, Pennsylvania last night around 3:00 AM where I decided to stop and sleep. When I stopped, the roads were clear and it was just cold with no snow. Unfortunately, when I woke up around noon, I looked out and it was snowing -- the hood of my truck was covered with snow. I hate it when that happens, especially when things were nice and dry when I went to sleep. Had I known it was going to snow I would have kept on going west.
In any case, I got underway and had to drive about 50 or 60 miles in partially snow-covered roads. After that, the roads were just mostly salt-dirty wet. I had to go through a lot of windshield washer juice with my wipers to keep the windshield clear so I could see where I was going. After I got into Ohio, things were much better.
I made it to Manteno, Illinois around 2:00 AM. I dropped my loaded trailer and picked up an empty. Now I'm about to head to bed. It's weird -- though it's below freezing here, it feels almost balmy compared to the bitter-cold weather yesterday in Pennsylvania.
January 17, 2005...
After I unloaded Saturday morning at Zanesville, Ohio, I took a nap and woke up mid-afternoon. Then I drove to Wellston, Ohio to pick a load up going to Elloree, South Carolina for delivery early Monday morning.
Saturday night after I got loaded at Wellston I made it to Beckley, West Virginia. Sunday afternoon about the time I got moving again it had started snowing. Fortunately the snow wasn't sticking. The snow continued to come down until I got around the Virginia/North Carolina border.
Right now I'm backed into a door at Elloree, South Carolina waiting for the lumper to unload my trailer. The temperature here this morning before the sun came out was above freezing, but the humidity made it seem quite cold.
At Beckley, West Virginia...
January 14, 2005...
After I got loaded at Fort Collins, Colorado, I made it as far as Limon, Colorado. It got extremely foggy after I got out away from Denver, Colorado and the fog got so bad I decided the safest thing for me to do would be to stop and spend the night so that's what I did. The next day I made it into Oklahoma, where it was still foggy. I got up the next morning and the fog was gone but the wind was blowing pretty good out of the southwest. I made it to Pine Bluff, Arkansas around noon Wednesday and got unloaded.
I had to spend Wednesday night at Pine Bluff, Arkansas so I could reload there Friday afternoon with a load going to Zanesville, Ohio. I made it around 144 miles into Tennessee and spent the night last night. I finished driving to Zanesville this evening. I deliver here at Zanesville at 6:00 AM Saturday morning.
On my way to Zanesville, Ohio...
Spending The Night at Pine Bluff, Arkansas...
December 10, 2005...
After I stopped south of Las Vegas, Nevada to spend the night, the next day I made it to St. George, Utah before I stopped again. There happen to be two towns in Utah named St. George, Utah -- I was at the one in the extreme southern part of the state along I-15 at exit 4. The next day I made it from St. George, Utah to Grand Junction, Colorado. Yesterday, I made the final leg of the journey from Grand Junction, Colorado to Denver, Colorado. I unloaded in Denver, Colorado early this morning. Right now I'm waiting for my next load to finish loading at Fort Collins, Colorado. The next load is going to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, so at least I won't have to go back west over I-70 and the awful mountain passes west of Denver. Fortunately when I came through there yesterday the roads were just wet, even though it was snowing. Even so, the passes are an incredibly hard and slow climb for a loaded truck. It's necessary to go just as slowly down the other side, since if you build up too much momentum going down a long steep mountain grade the brakes will easily become overwhelmed. That's why you see those "Runaway Truck Ramps" along steep mountain passes.
A few days ago, I was at a Flying J truck stop and I decided to buy an "SMC" brand wireless WiFi card that was supposed to be able to connect to an external antenna, along with the appropriate external antenna. I got a chance finally to try it out today. What a joke!!!! The external antenna connector doesn't attach firmly to the WiFi card -- you would have to prop the silly thing in the appropriate connector hole!!! I took it back to the Flying J in Denver for a refund before coming on up to Fort Collins. The ability to plug in an external antenna is a good one -- the problem is that the way "SMC" implements their design is really a joke.
I'm in the process of switching web hosting companies for this
http://www.truckerphoto.com/ website. The old server only offers 50 megabytes of space. The new server is with a company called
StartLogic and they offer an incredible deal -- for actually LESS money than I am currently paying, I get 2 gigabytes of server space, along with 60 gigabytes of monthly bandwidth. That's an incredible value!!! If you need website hosting, be sure to check out
StartLogic. Thanks to Earl J. Lear of
http://www.impodcasting.com/ for turning me on to the deal !!! Way to go E.J. Lear!!!
I've gotten all of the files that make up this website uploaded to the new server. I've got to do a bit of final tweaking and then after I'm sure everything is working good I'll change the IP address numbers that the
http://www.truckerphoto.com/ domain points to. Both the old and new servers will be up and running simultaneously and it will take a couple of days for the new numbers to "propagate" throughout the entire Internet. Since both sites will be up and running, there should be no down time for this site at all. Once I'm certain that everything has changed hands properly, I can cancel the old service.
Spending The Night At Grand Junction, Colorado...
At St. George, Utah (the one in the southern part of the state)...
January 6, 2005...
January 6, 2004 -- I woke up around Noon Pacific time. They had dispatched me to pick up a load at Wilmington, California, about 75 miles away, right out along the coast near the Port of Los Angeles. It took me about an hour and a half to get there, not bad considering every bit of it was in city freeway traffic. The average person who's never been to the greater Los Angeles area probably doesn't realize how sprawling it is. It's a good 100 miles east to west by probably 75 miles from north to south. Everywhere you look there are people, and they all seem to be in their cars driving around.
The load was supposed to have loaded on Wednesday, so they dispatched it a day late. It was originally scheduled to be in Denver, Colorado Friday at 8:00 AM. There's no way I can make that delivery, so they will have to reschedule it, likely for Monday morning.
I've stopped just south of Las Vegas, Nevada to spend the night.
January 5, 2005...
I just dropped my loaded trailer at Redlands, California and picked up an empty trailer.
When I got almost to Gallup, New Mexico last night it was snowing and the road was slick, so I stopped at the next truck stop, which fortunately wasn't but a few miles from where the road started getting bad. I heard that they had closed I-40 at Flagstaff, Arizona due to snow. When I went through there this afternoon the road was cleared off, but especially right in Flagstaff it was obvious they had gotten a very heavy snow. The road was clear all the way to Southern California.
Redlands, California is inland a good 60 or more miles from Los Angeles, so the temperature is colder here by a good 10 degrees than it is in Los Angeles. I'm guessing it's around 35 degrees here. Los Angeles is about 45 degrees.
I found a place to park where I'll likely sleep till around noon Pacific time.
I've been somewhat surprised lately by the lack of the normal number of trucks on the road. Lately I've had a very easy time finding parking at night in truck stops that are usually jammed.
Stuck In Snow Storm At Gallup, New Mexico...
January 1, 2005...
The original heating/air conditioning repair man didn't call me right away when he was supposed to, so I went ahead and called someone else. They were able to send someone right out, so when the first guy finally called I had to tell him it was too late, that someone else was already on the way over.
It turned out that I had to have something called an "induction motor" replaced with a new one. All together it cost around $400 dollars for the repair, but it had to be done. One of my younger brothers is going to check on it to make sure it's starting and stopping okay like it's supposed to.
I went back to work on December 28th. They had me take a load from the Elm Springs, Arkansas yard to New York City, New York. Of course, New York City is not a place I like to truck to, but I agreed to take the load. I delivered it there early Friday morning. Afterwards they had me pick a load up at Palmyra, Pennsylvania near Hershey, Pennsylvania that delivers to Redlands, California in the Los Angeles, California area.
At Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on my way to Redlands, California...
www.truckerphoto.com
