We have been in so much rain lately. It started for us on Saturday evening while in Dayton. We could see by the flooded areas that it had been raining here for quite some time. It seemed that every field was under water and creeks, streams and rivers were way past their normal boundries. It rained all evening, sometimes really hard, sometimes mixed with sleet.
We walked up to the truckstop for showers and saw some young girls selling Girl Scout cookies. I didn't bring any cash with me so I walked back through the sleeting rain to get some and came away with 3 boxes of thin mints. They were out of Dos si dos and Tagalongs. :(
Anyway, in a little while after returning to the truck, the rain started to mix with some snow and later turned to all snow. By the next morning when we were in Poco, WV it was laying on the ground.
We picked up our load and headed back toward Michigan thinking that we might be driving through snow, but by the time we got to Dayton it was back to rain.
We delivered that load and waited out a layover in Michigan. It wasn't raining now, but it was cloudy and dreary.
We got a load picking up in Deleware,Oh and going to St. Joseph, MO. By the time we entered Ohio, it was raining again. Wow, I think just about all of Ohio is flooded! There is so much water everywhere.
The further we drove the more it rained. It rained all through Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
We were going to St. Joseph which is on the western side of Missouri, just 25 miles north of Kansas City. We were hauling a hazmat load but not a big quantity so we didn't need placards. It was just one barrel of a corrosive material.
We made our delivery and was given a choice of two layover destinations: Kansas City, MO or Omaha, Nebraska. I wanted to go to Kansas City because it was closer, Pops wanted to go to Omaha. When I asked him why he wanted to there he said something about Mutual of Omaha. I asked him to repeat what he said because I hadn't quite heard him, but he wouldn't repeat he just agreed to go to Kansas City.
I asked him if he wanted to go there to see Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom? I was joking of course. He didn't answer me, he just gave me one of those side-ways glances. I said, "You know, he's dead." "Who," he asked.
"That guy, the one who hosted that show." Wild Kingdom was a show about wildlife. It was on when I was a kid. It was on Sunday evenings just before Walt Disney. I loved that show and I can picture the host as if he was right in front of me, but I couldn't think of his name if it would've saved my life. And that bugged me!!!
Pops and I talked about it for a few minutes, but nothing would trigger the name, "Merlin," I said. "I think it is Merlin."
So I posted the question on Facebook and George Rigo came right back with the right answer, Marlin Perkins. Thanks George.
So we still sit in the rain waiting out a layover. Rain, rain go away
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sunday
Sunday was a nice day. We don't usually ever have to pick up on a Sunday or if we do it is normally later in the day, but today we had a pickup at 10am. This meant that we wouldn't be able to go to church this morning.
We got hold of our nephew, Mikey, the night before (he lives within 15 minutes of our pickup) to see if he would be available to go to breakfast. We made arrangements to meet up with him at 7:30am. I was excited. Mikey had gotten married last summer and we have not had a chance to get to know his wife, Lina.
Sunday morning was cold. It had snowed the previous evening and a little was laying on the ground. Pops and I walked across the road to the Shoney's restuarant. We had to wait about 10minutes for them to show up.
We had a real nice visit with Mikey and Lina. But it was over far too soon. We had a pick up to make and they were going to be working on a house that they had purchased.
We were close to our pick up so we drove up there and got loaded really quickly. And then we were on our way to Michigan.
We looked for a church in our directory that would offer an evening service because we didn't deliver until morning. We called many, but most didn't have evening services.
We did locate one in Findlay, Ohio. They had a service at 6pm. So we chose that one.
Our good friend, Keenan, lives about an hour off our route and we would have loved to visit with him and his family at their church, but we felt it wouldn't be good to deviate that far from route. Next time, hopefully.
Anyway, Findlay Central Christian Church was a good choice. We had good parking and even made it in time to have a quick nap before service.
They don't normally offer communion on Sunday Evening, but they did see that we got served.
After that we joined in on their study of How to Study the Bible. We caught them on lesson 6, but it wasn't a problem and we both participated.
There was a young lady there named Nicki. She was a very nice young lady. She explained to me that she is the only one of her family that attends church. She trys hard to get them to come, but only her dad asks her questions about church and the rest don't pay attention to her. She was very sweet. She even told me that sometimes she walks to church when it is very cold, like today, but she doesn't like to miss. I loved her attitude.
She said she felt sorry for us because we had to live out of our truck until I explained that it was like a camper and that we weren't "homeless."
She also told us that sometimes the teenagers picked on her because she is different from them.
It's a shame that people don't see the soul and spirit of other people instead of challenges and appearances.
We really enjoyed our visit to that church and was spiritually fed. We would go there again.
It was a very nice day, indeed.
We got hold of our nephew, Mikey, the night before (he lives within 15 minutes of our pickup) to see if he would be available to go to breakfast. We made arrangements to meet up with him at 7:30am. I was excited. Mikey had gotten married last summer and we have not had a chance to get to know his wife, Lina.
Sunday morning was cold. It had snowed the previous evening and a little was laying on the ground. Pops and I walked across the road to the Shoney's restuarant. We had to wait about 10minutes for them to show up.
We had a real nice visit with Mikey and Lina. But it was over far too soon. We had a pick up to make and they were going to be working on a house that they had purchased.
We were close to our pick up so we drove up there and got loaded really quickly. And then we were on our way to Michigan.
We looked for a church in our directory that would offer an evening service because we didn't deliver until morning. We called many, but most didn't have evening services.
We did locate one in Findlay, Ohio. They had a service at 6pm. So we chose that one.
Our good friend, Keenan, lives about an hour off our route and we would have loved to visit with him and his family at their church, but we felt it wouldn't be good to deviate that far from route. Next time, hopefully.
Anyway, Findlay Central Christian Church was a good choice. We had good parking and even made it in time to have a quick nap before service.
They don't normally offer communion on Sunday Evening, but they did see that we got served.
After that we joined in on their study of How to Study the Bible. We caught them on lesson 6, but it wasn't a problem and we both participated.
There was a young lady there named Nicki. She was a very nice young lady. She explained to me that she is the only one of her family that attends church. She trys hard to get them to come, but only her dad asks her questions about church and the rest don't pay attention to her. She was very sweet. She even told me that sometimes she walks to church when it is very cold, like today, but she doesn't like to miss. I loved her attitude.
She said she felt sorry for us because we had to live out of our truck until I explained that it was like a camper and that we weren't "homeless."
She also told us that sometimes the teenagers picked on her because she is different from them.
It's a shame that people don't see the soul and spirit of other people instead of challenges and appearances.
We really enjoyed our visit to that church and was spiritually fed. We would go there again.
It was a very nice day, indeed.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Long Stressful Week
This week seemed long. It seems to me like every day was endless.
Once we left the house on Monday morning, we drove over to Grantsville to see our mechanic, but once over there we changed our minds. So we pulled in to the Pilot truckstop and waited for a load. We didn’t wait long either. We were going to be going to New Jersey to pick up a load of appliances and taking them to West Virginia. We have picked up at this place before. Security is a big issue, and the people aren’t very friendly, but usually a good load. And we were wrong, Pops had some trouble with the guy that loaded us, he didn’t leave enough room for Pops to get our load bars back into the truck. That is what is used to secure the load. So the load needed to be taken off and put back in differently. Well, the shipper was not happy about that, but Pops kept his cool and eventually everything got worked out. So away we went.
We got to our delivery in WV ok and immediately got another load, this time picking up and going to Tennessee. We drove through the beautiful mountains of Tennessee in the morning just after sunrise. The mountains are already very green and daffodils were in bloom and way down in the valleys, the fog laid heavily. It was a beautiful thing to see. I love seeing the flowers and the buds on the trees and the flowering trees are already blooming too. It was good medicine for my soul.
Later that day I got a phone call from my sister about Dad. He had experienced some kind of a melt down at his personal care home and had to be taken to the pysch ward of the hospital. None of knew for sure what was going on with him, but he was acting terribly and saying and doing things that were almost unforgivable. He has badly hurt my sister, who is and has been his constant care-giver for the last 10+ years. She was telling me that the hospital can’t find anything really wrong with him. Except he was out of a medication that he had been taking for the last 50 years. Could this have caused all of this? No one is quite sure.
I called him later that evening and he was still talking crazy. I couldn’t believe it was my dad. What on earth? It was a really hard week on all of us in the family, very stressful and unsettling, especially for Amy. What are we going to do now? The personal care home did not want to take him back, his behavior and breakdown had been so bad. I could hardly focus on my job at all this week. I just couldn’t wrap my head around anything. Thank Goodness Pops is so understanding.
Our next load was another load of appliances, this time picking up at a different place. It was a pretty good size load to and the people there were so very nice. It is honestly true about the southern people being more friendly. We have proved that over and over again. Anyway, while there, Pops was telling them about how often we haul appliances and he was asking them questions. They are all in agreement, at every appliance place we’ve been too that LG appliances are by far the best for the money. Their quality and reliability is better than many name brands that I won’t mention. So if you are looking for an appliance, anything from microwaves to refrigerators to washer/dryers, consider an LG brand for sure.
We had a pick up in North Carolina. It was at a place that had a lot of silo-looking things and a couple of big muddy ponds in the back with things that churned up the water and made it bubble. It was very secure and we had to get security badges and everything. Whoa!
Our load wasn’t ready yet, so we had to wait. Okay, by me I will just sit and read.
I tried to call to talk to my dad again, but he was released from the hospital. He was going back to the personal care home. I don’t know for sure what had transpired, but he was going back there. I don’t know if it’s permanent or temporary, but I’m glad he was going back but at the same time very embarrassed about the whole ordeal. So since I didn’t catch him to talk to him before he left the hospital, I decided to wait a day or two to let him readjust to the home before calling. I talked to my sister and she was going to do the same thing.
Finally our load was ready. We were hauling one big plastic vat of enzymes. We looked it up on the internet. It is an anti-fungal agent for food products. We were taking it to a big name place that makes corn syrup. I always see train tankers hauling their corn syrup. We had to take it to Dayton, Oh.
I always hate leaving the south. It honestly makes me a little sad. This time the further north we got the darker it was becoming. Somewhere above middle West Virginia we ran into rain. It once near Dayton it was pouring. It rained all night long. We parked at a Walmart and when we woke up the fields all around were flooding and the water was really running into storm drains. But at least, it wasn’t cold.
After we got unloaded we went to the truckstop to wait our layover. I figured we were done for the week and was looking forward to resting and relaxing and cooking. But we started to get load offers, many of them actually. There was 2 loads that kept coming back and an increased rate each time. They must really need these loads covered. One of them was to Laredo, TX and the other was a Sunday load picking up in WV and going to Michigan for Monday morning. The Michigan load is the one that they finally persuaded us to take. We will have to miss church tomorrow unless we can find one that doesn’t start until 11am. But if we are unable to attend, we are planning on using our friend, Chad’s blog as our study and also some materials that Jeff from Wills Mt. has given us.
I have been thinking about my old workplace a lot this week. I don’t know if it is because of hearing about the death of one of the residents, the very bad health of another, or the birthdays of two good fellow workers this week, or just because of what my dad was doing, but I sure miss my friends there. I think about them way more than they will ever know. Between the workers and the residents, I’ll bet not one single day ever goes by without me thinking about that place. I wish things could be good there. I wish the residents wouldn’t get sick or cranky, and I wish the workers would not have to work so hard. It can really be a good place. I do think about them so often.
So now, Pops is sleeping. I have cooked up a few days of food. We have stocked up on drinking water and groceries. I have cleaned as much as I can with the rain outside. And now that all of you are updated I am going to read and relax.
I have the very best friends. I know this because of all of the texts, phone calls, messages on facebook and on email. It is so good to hear from all of you. I miss everyone and am so glad for the technology to be able to hear from you. Please continue to pray for us, pray for my dad, my sister (upcoming surgery,) Melvin (upcoming surgery.)
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