Sarah "Can't Take The Heat" Palin is resigning her governorship before the end of her elected term.

Idiot republicans gleefully report this is so she can focus on her run for President (of the USA? puh- leeze!)

in 2012.

Just what we need, a whiner AND a quitter.

Good riddance.

after a week with a half dozen or so unexpected celebrity deaths, celebrity impressionist

Fred Travalena passed away Sunday morning.

( I wanted to post a link to his webpage, but mindsay won't let me,

I wanted to embed a video of fred on youtube, but mindsay won't let me)

The doctor who has admitted to administering CPR to death, upon the frail body of Michael Jackson,

WAS OWED $300,000 by Jackson's summer tour promoter !!!!  GASP!!!  EH ?  Oh yeah, NOW it makes sense!!!

Don't wanna pay him, eh?

“His contract with the promoters states he would receive an amount of money each month to be his (Jackson’s) personal physician and they have failed to honor that contract,” Chernoff said. “They are two months behind.”

Oh!  AND he murders with such FLAIR!!!

Murray "administered with his hand behind his back" Chernoff said.

Some have speculated the doctor botched the CPR.

"He's a trained doctor," Chernoff said. "He knows how to administer CPR."

of course he does, did I suggest he didn't KNOW what he was doing?  I'm just sayin' . . .

Jim S had a post a couple of days ago about Obama swatting a fly (a you-tube link) and Wendy made a funny comment about the reaction of the organization, PETI (people for the ethical treatment of insects).

In reality, I wanted to post a link to two stories - one, that yes, PETA DID object and did make a (minor) issue out of it sending something to the President about, oh I forget, fly adoptions or something.

But the next was a link to a story from Seattle where PETA is protesting the fact that workers in Pikes Place Market throw dead fish.  Yes, the iconic action of these fish-sellers, fulfilling the need for every guy to come home and say "yes!   I CAUGHT this salmon!" is seen by PETA as disrespectful to the memory of the corpses of the dead fish in question.  I would post direct links, but MINDSAY won't let me.  Google it yourself, I'm not making this shit up!

I'm SO tired of mindsay.

For EIGHT years half of America gave Dubya a blank check and whistled mindlessly while he spent us into oblivion with his war, his tax breaks, and raiding the SS funds.

IN his last year, just a continuiation of his abominable economic record of ignoring the recession, banks and auto industries began to fail.  He instituted the bank bailout.

In December of 2008 BUSH APPROVES the bailout of the auto industry.

And now, people have the BALLS, to whine about the economy under Obama? 

MSNBC :  

Nearly seven in 10 have serious reservations about the federal government’s ownership stake in General Motors. Almost 60 percent say that President Obama and Congress should worry more about keeping the deficit down — even if that means it will take longer for the economy to recover. And fewer than half of Americans have confidence in the president’s policies to improve the economy.

Give me a break!

MSNBC : officials say Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a surprise landslide victory.

Yeah, you go Mahmoud, you're the man Dubya always wanted to be.

  A 75 year old senator from Iowa, has apparently been acting like a foolish middle-aged parent trying to show his constituents he is 'cool'.  He is a twit.

No, really, he's a twit, as in tweeting twitter twit.

He also heads up a congressional committee tasked with trying to find bipartisan middle ground for a new health care reform bill.

He was, to put it mildly, not impressed with the prez speaking Saturday in his weekly address and focusing specifically on the amount of time it is taking to get this task done.

Chuck "too sexy for my shirt" Grassley did not make any official response to Obama.  He did not send a memo to the White House.  He did not send out a press release.  He did not use the weekly Republican address to counter the president's admonitions.

No.

He tweeted.

Twice.

No, really, the twit tweeted twice on twitter and his staff has the balls to look serious and say, "yup, our boy did that".

ROTHFLMAO ! ! !

from MSNBC :

"Grassley's first tweet: "Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."

A short time later: "Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a 'hammer' u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL."

oh, we are all going to hell.

We're starting the transition of closing the dedicated fleet (150 drivers) of General Mills at Schneider National, and the past 2 days have been me running trailers here and there as we take empties off their lot and bring loaded trailers to a "drop yard" for drivers to pick up over the weekend.  I had requested Sunday off and it backfired - they got me back to Atlanta Wednesday, but don't have enough of this busy work to keep me, well, busy.  Yesterday ended with me sitting at a production plant waiting for a trailer that should have been loaded Thursday.  By 6pm Friday, it still wasn't done and they told us it wouldn't be complete until Saturday morning.  I asked my dispatcher if I was about to be paid for sitting for 18 hours, and she told me to head home a day early.

Have no idea if there will be something up here in Chattanooga for me to start on Sunday (after taking 1 day off), if I will get 2 days off and resume Monday, or if, as they hinted, Monday may also be a "slow freight" day.

Wish I could jump into a project full speed but I have trouble starting something if I know I will have to leave it half done.  So I doubt I will make the needed call to the contractors ref work at the LazyB, I would need to arrange to meet them there and probably be available for another meeting later in the week.  Same with hiring a contractactor to re-do the electric system on the fire truck.  I could call the Chief and get his number (he wires all the accessorial lighting on our fire trucks), but doubt he would be ready to go to the firehouse today to discuss the project with me.  Maybe I'll try anyway - I'm headed over there now to check mail at the LazyB and maybe proceed with buying a new set of batteries for the Mack (something I'd rather wait to do until the electical guy has a look-see). 
What to do? What to do?

Well, as used to be the battle cry of me and Pete back in high school when deciding whether or not we should try something (usually car related) should we?  "THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT" ( do it !).

c-ya.

"dead ant, dead ant, deadant deadant deadant deadand deadANT, deaddeaddeadant"

Didn't think when backing into a parking space last night.  Just my tractor, squeezed in between two others in a narrow space, so I pushed farther back than them so my mirrors would be clear of theirs and all of us would have no problem opening our doors.  I guess I pushed back off the pavement into an anthill.

When I woke this morning and stepped outside to brush my teeth I saw a line of tiny brown ants inside the drivers door threshold working their way under the dashboard.  Then I saw them ON the dashboard and I traced them back to the steel frame of the tractor where I guess they had crawled up around the tires.

Lord knows what they are looking for, but I've spent a lot of time this morning with a whisk broom and and paper towel flinging them away or smooshing them - god I hope they aren't back in the sheets by this evening!

Finishing another year of correspondance with a Trucker Buddy class - last year the Icelandic teacher moved out of her school district so that was my last visit there probably.  This past year i was linked to a 1st grade class in Inverness, Florida (north of Tampa).  A bit difficult in that I got no real feedback all year except a single envelope at Christmas with a signed card and a half dozen notes from the kids.  The Trucker Buddy program isn't even supposed to include first grade, and I guess this is one reason why - while they might enjoy the post cards, letters and photos, I imagine it is mostly part of in-class discussion - not very easy to get 5 year olds to write back!  Also at that age, there was nothing I could really offer them by way of discussing the job, different places, or the truck - I just dont see a first grader's attention span going beyond looking at the post card or picture and then being ready to move on to the next stimulus.  I'll probably request another class over the summer - its difficult to keep interest when there is no give and take.

Had a couple of days at the family house this weekend and a short visit with family from Pittsburgh, but came away mostly with a memory of how hot and humid it got - and here I sit in Atlanta 3 days later, in the heat and humidity.  Its gonna be a loooonnnnngggggggg summer!

Should get a note from my current manager telling me who my new manager will be as I transition to the "one way" fleet next week.  As of June 1, my dedicated travels for the General Mills companies is over and I am again an 'over the road' driver being dispatched to the nearest available load.  Will have to see what changes that brings to my day to day lifestyle - specific appointment times requiring early mornings or late nights?  Hours of waiting at loading docks instead of the easier preloaded "drop and hook" deliveries?

Longer routes and maybe heading out west more often?  More pay? Newer truck?  stay tuned.

I have pics, but can't post them, and dont care to trouble shoot IE or Mindsay to figure out why. 

If only facebook could come up with a simple blog feature instead of the links, I'd just pack my mindbags and move there for good.

Well, lets see if a return to the open road restarts my desire to post here more frequently - time will tell.bb.

can lean over and lick his balls like a dog, comes this week's story that he is trying to get the CIA to release memos about US interogation techniques that prove his point that the techniques were indeed useful and provided information that prevented further terrorist attacks on the US.

this from the same man who for 8 years sneered and salivated and growled at anyone attempting to publish ANY information about the US war on terror saying that they were undermining US intelligence efforts and potentially causing harm to our US servicemen AND giving the enemy the upper hand.

uh, but with Bush out of office and Obama at the helm, its ok now.  FUCK BUSH/CHENEY may they rot in hell forever.

AND PIECE OF SHIT MINDSAY WON'T PUBLISH THIS WITH A SIMPLE FUCKING LINK!

I'M DONE.

Thurs., May 14, 2009 WASHINGTON - The CIA says it has denied a request by former Vice President Dick Cheney to declassify secret internal government memos that detail whether valuable intelligence was gained from the use of harsh interrogation techniques under the Bush administration. CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said Thursday that the request was turned down because the documents are the subject of pending litigation — making them not subject to declassification. "For that reason — and that reason only — CIA did not accept Mr. Cheney's request for a Mandatory Declassification Review," said Gimigliano.

"The Agency simply followed the Executive Order. This request was handled in accordance with normal practice by CIA professionals with long experience in information management and release. It was for them a straightforward issue." Cheney says the documents show that the tactics prevented terrorist attacks and saved lives, contrary to the Obama administration's criticism of the Bush-era policies. Cheney had made his request on March 31. NBC's Pete Williams and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Adam and Bryan did nothing to make bringing that report to you easier. goodbye.bb.

A friend of mine was captured TWICE by the yahoo maps "street view" camera car while parked at the mailboxes in her community sitting behind the wheel of her boyfriend's car, and walking back to the car from the mailboxes - and he is supposed to be laying low, LOL!

148 bledsoe terrace, chattanooga, tn

Stopped for the night in Chattanooga and was surprised at the local watering hole when a chef friend of mine came in the door with a freshly baked choco swirl cake!

Of COURSE I ate it with beer!

(still can't post a picture - I'm gettin' fed up with this place)

With Mom now in the nursing home and being victim to just about every nursing home pitfall you can think of (she fell and broke her hip the 3rd day there, this week she is on oxygen to help with a bout of pnuemonia), my sisters and a friend are prepping our family house of 44 years to be put on the market in the next month or so.  Furniture to be moved, some to be removed, some to be given away, pictures and knickknacks to be taken down and boxed, walls and ceilings to be washed clean prior to painting, and my weekend task, to pull up the carpeting and padding and expose the hardwood floors that were smartly left covered in our house with 4 kids back in the 60's.

My mini-van is loaded to the hilt with the odds n ends I want to eventually bring to TN but need to be out of the house now so when we are done with all the detail work, it can be simply staged with minimal furniture and no personal belongings.  I'll need to rent a U-haul trailer or van to take some of the larger furniture I want to have after the staging is done and the house is emptied to be ready for sale, but that is another time, hopefully still a couple of months away.

A quiet weekend for the most part, got to see a couple of friends I haven't seen in ages who coincidentally have already been through what we are going through with a fading parent - it always helps to chat with someone and share experiences and emotions.  Well, a few more things to do today before putting the blue marble back on the road to PA and getting back in the truck.  Still not certain if I'll stop be and see Mom - it's not easy for me, she is bed-ridden this week and doesn't know much of what is happening around her, and I did take 2 hours Friday to sit by her side and "talk".  I just don't want these visits to be my lifelong last memories of such a vibrant, smart, funny, and loving woman.  I went through a box of cards and letters she kept and seeing my birthday and Mother's days cards from my post college years, many of which I spent here as her 'roommate' (Dad had moved out and I was working as a PI) and almost every card, without fail, tells her how much I appreciated her support, advice and love - I miss those days.  I love you Mom, and don't you forget it, baby!

Into A 20th Century Neighborhood Warehouse

1)  after making a u-turn on a residential street, park REAL close to the side of the building

2) then, ignoring the 80 year old lady on her porch across the street who will call the cops if you bump her curb, back REAL close to and around the corner of the building

3) once the back end is in the driveway, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, avoiding said curb in front of you, to straighten your rig up and prepare for

4) open doors creating a 9 1/2 foot wide trailer and back it into the 10 foot wide dark entrance to the inside loading dock

That might have been interesting if mindsay would publish the blog with photos attached, but it won't.  Recently it has also not allowed me to publish replies.  I'm getting tired of mindsay and its advertising everywhere we turn.  If the site worked . . .

To see the pix, I'm over at facebook, I don't have a private profile there either so you can click on the picture to see the folder, with the four pictures in order (yes, facebook is annoying too, I can't get photos in a certain order in the folder, to display in that same order on my profile page).

You'll find me more there, than here, from now on.  bruce brandon.

sitting in a warehouse parking lot, woo-hoo!

I saved a family today when Daddy dearest decided that he should yeild to a car entering the highway from an on-ramp.  He was slowing for the off ramp, he thought, and was down to about 35mph but then decided he DIDN'T want to get off there and since he was now alongside a car going 35mph who wanted to get ON there, he felt compelled not to accelerate, and not to slow even more, but to steer his minivan with the wifey and two kids directly in front of my 60 mph rig.

I didn't have enough time to check the left mirror to see if I could swerve into the other lane, so made quite the commotion locking up 8 of my 18wheels to avoid killing them all. 

Mister, you're welcome.

IF, you are so uncomfortable and so unprepared and so untalented as to be unable to drive on the Interstate highway at posted speeds; 

IF you are so strangely trained, so oddly inept, and so logically challenged;

IF you are in the rain, snow, fog, bright sunshine :

AND you feel the need to slow to 35 miles per hour and put up the 'magic cloak' of your 4 way flashers thinking they will protect you from traffic who KNOW how to safely drive on the interstate,

THEN GET THE FUCK OFF THE HIGHWAY.

thank you.  this has been a public service announcement from the guy who DID NOT RUN YOU OVER TODAY. 

MORON.

Nothing ever works out, it seems.  Had the last few days set up to allow my 3 day stay in New Orleans beginning with 3 hours of training in ATL before parking the truck for the weekend.  Instead I first got called up for a random drug test that took 2 hours of my time (travel to the clinic and waiting time).  Then then wanted me to run from Covington to Chattanooga, at 4pm.  Yeah, ATL rushhour, thanks boss.  By the time I was in TN I was out of legal hours to work so grabbed a quick night at home before returning to ATL via Rome, GA today.  Back to ATL at 3pm, on a Friday.  Yeah, rushhour.  So New Orleans is out this year, too much money to go down for just one day. 

But there is NASCAR in Talladega this weekend!  Only a 3 hour ride from Chatt, and it may have to be a day trip since even the Motel 6 is gouging $110 for both Saturday and Sunday night.  I've never done NASCAR so I think one way or another, I'll go.

Went by the LazyB today and liked the fact that the hay bales used by the excavation guy to retain dirt and soil erosion, are now sprouting grass!  Also he put down straw on the edges of the parking area and that is also grassing up nicely!  I'm still a ways away from step two, building a retaining wall - it will be 10' tall at points and will cost near $5000.  Since I just paid Uncle Sam $5000 for the priviledge of accessing my own money out of my 401k, the wall will have to wait.

On the plus side, my Mack gets kicked out of the firehouse when our new mini-pumper is delivered.  But GM is going bankrupt and has done NO work on building our new fire truck!  So ole Mac has several more months of comfort in the firehall.

After 2 or 3 hours there this afternoon, I drove back to Chattanooga and sat down to relax.  Was just contemplating a shower and heading out for a beer when the pager went off for a brush fire that was endangering a residence.  Now in our neck of the woods, we have a cowboy - he is the Ga Forestry Dept guy who get to fight all brush fires on state land (and a lot of our area is state land, railroad right of ways, interstate rights of ways, parks, etc).  They call us to cover their ass.  He responds in a pickup pulling a trailer with a grader on it and bulldozes fire lines.   He doesn't fight fires.  He can get oodles of bucks for spending hours more time on the dozer than it would take for us to fight traditionally with a brush truck and a tanker.  But so it goes.  I heard no response from other members until our Chief finally came on the air in his Battallion vehicle.  I called him on the cell phone to let him know what I knew (there had been someone burning brush near the LazyB when I was there earlier, but it was private property).  I told him to call me if he thought we needed the manpower and Ga Forestry was still requesting us.  He told me he had a couple of other calls and the engine would soon be enroute and asked me to come get the tanker.  So off I went in the bimmer, around Moccasin Bend on the interestate and to the hall.  Very tough trying to drive a vehicle you're not familiar with in the dark!  I had a huge flashlight set on the floor so I could see the controls and I hit the emergency lights, double checked the shift pattern on the 10 speed tranny, and pulled out of the firehouse crawling up the hills dragging 5000 gallons of water behind me.

We did nothing.  After 3 hours I put in my 2 cents worth that it was obvious that the home was not in danger, that the forestry dude had no need for urgent access to water, and if he did, he could go find a hydrant hisowndamnself!  We left.  But I got to run lights and siren, still a thrill for a bucket firefighter at heart (bucket being the term used for the passenger compartment in a traditional fire engine).

So, Saturday.  Do I pay the bucks and head to 'Dega?  Or get up early, go Sunday, and pay bucks for a room that night instead of driving home after a long day in the sun?  Or do I make it a day trip?  Or do I blow it off?  I've been to Indy, it can't get better than that, not at a super speedway anyway (MAYBE at a short track like Bristol ).  I'll spend the day sitting at the LazyB admiring the grass and being close to the firehouse, just in case.  But who knows what I'll do about Sunday.  I guess you'll have to check in Monday and find out!gnite.