In the picture on the bottom we are going around the track in a counter-clockwise direction which tells the horse we are just warming up. When you turn around and go clock-wise the horse knows it's time to race. I am driving in the photo on the top, not racing, just heading back to the stable. Smart horse, "Shadow" did just what I told her to do.

Barak Obama

I spent the evening watching the Democratic Convention and Obama's speech. He is a good 'un, he has a bunch of great ideas and if he can get half of them done it will be great. I am a cynic about government any more because of the obvious control the lobbyists have over ALL the branches of government. It seems to me that the little guys (you and me) are of little importance to the folks in Washington except during elections. Then they kiss our a**es and promise us the sun moon and the stars which they, of course, forget all they promised. Now the Republicans are trashing Obama's speech on Larry King's show. They are complaining about the attacks on Bush and McCain. I'm going to turn them off, they are really starting to pi** me off. Vote Democratic and vote early and vote often. Let's Floridaize them!

Democratic Convention

We have watched parts of the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week and last weekend. We enjoyed Hillary's speech, she is a great speaker. I especially liked the "Do we want four more years of the past eight years?" comment. I really liked the political conventions better when they did the selection at the convention instead of in an infinity of primaries and caucuses. There was a lot more suspense over who the candidate was going to be. Now all they do is blow their horns and spew platitudes. The question of whether Hillary would support Obama after losing the nomination would not have been a problem for those of us familiar with the old style of convention. In those days the hopefuls would beat the daylights (verbally, of course) out of their opponents and then after someone had won the nomination, the losers would break their necks to get behind the winner and extol their virtues. It's called rallying behind the winner. Seldom did anyone refuse to back the nominee after he was named and then it was usually over the platform and not the candidate.

Rescue Load

As you may have read, we have had a trucker stranded in St George, Utah for the past 3 weeks with a blown engine in his truck and later an appendectomy. One of our other truckers is in Utah 400 miles from St George and he has decided to "rescue" our stranded driver and bring him and his trailer "home" to Vale. The rescue hero has also agreed to take the first driver's son with him back to Wisconsin and sell him one of his trucks. Give three cheers for "BD" for going above and beyond and reaching out to help "BJ". I'm hoping for a great load for BD to get him home for Labor Day. His response to my question asking why he was being so generous to a guy he has never met was, "It may be me who needs help next time." You are a great human being BD and I'm proud to know you.

Eastern Freeways

I learn a lot of geography in my disguise as a truck dispatcher, often the hard way. Today I called one of my truckers and told him of the great load I had gotten him down in Kentucky. He groaned and told me that the freeways in the Appalachian Mountains were terrible, they were crooked and had lots of steep hills. He begged me to get him no more loads in those Eastern mountains. Even though we both live in the intermountain west, he told me that we had few roads to compare with some of the Kentucky and
West Virginia freeways. The only road that he felt was as bad as those Smokey Mountain roads was the old Whitebird Hill on US 95 in Northern Idaho . That road had 10 or 12 switchbacks going across a barren hill side. I told him I would look at the map better when I got him loads back east. I don't think he believed me.

Olympics

We have been watching the Olympics from China almost exclusively in the evening. I stay up too late watching and then spend the next day yawning. I was just getting used to getting up early for work and now these Olympic Games are screwing up my sleep patterns. First I lose my after lunch nap and now I have get to bed before the end of the TV showings. I really enjoy watching the best athletes in the world compete at their best. I do wish they would show more of some of the minor sports and cut down on the Beach Volleyball. I know that there is a huge following for women's beach volleyball, but I would love to see the wrestling and boxing. Jean and I also score the Olympics' TV commercials. The one with Hank the Budweiser Clydesdale gets straight 10s from us. I am also impressed with the venues that the Chinese have constructed for the Games. They have really raised the bar for future Olympic hosts. Well the apparatus finals in gymnastics is coming on so I've got to finish this post.

Birthdays

Saturday our daughter turned 48 which cannot be possible since my love and I are both under 50. I generally feel about 35-37 until I look in the mirror. Even looking at the mirror often fails to disabuse me of the notion that I am a slim, early middle aged man at the peak of my physical prowess. I find that people of my age group who spend time bemoaning the fact that they are aging really are aging. I know that I am fast approaching my three score and ten and I welcome its arrival, but the fact is that I don't feel my age. I have little aches and pains, but then I've always had little aches and pains that do nothing to make me feel old. I guess that what I am saying is that age is a state of mind. I really do feel great, I refuse to let those aches and pains that multiply with age affect the way I feel about myself.

I recently took on a full time job as a truck dispatcher and I am having the time of my life. The learning curve is steep but I am invigorated by it all. I often told my students that learning was a lifelong task and that when you quit learning you quit living. I sincerely believe that and realize that for the past three of four years I have been coasting. I've been dispatching for a month now and I hardly miss my after lunch naps. I am still readjusting my life and have yet to find a way to get my exercise done each day, but that will come soon. Life is good!

Internet Protocol

I belong to a insulator collecting group called ICON (insulator collectors on the net) and the guy who started it is the web master for the Icon list-serve. For some who are on the net all the time it is sort of a chat room but for most of us the web master lists all of the messages received in a digest. I suspect that the majority of us who read the digest are old farts like me with too much time on their hands. It blows me away that the ICON group can't go a week without someone getting pissed off for some reason or another. We just completed one such drama and another one has popped up. One of the group posted a picture of a tremendously obese man sitting nude at a computer. The photo is a side shot so no "private" parts are shown. The webmaster politely asked the poster of the photo to remove it because (a) it is not insulator related and (b) it is in questionable taste. The poster replied that if he had to take his picture down then he would remove all his photos and quit ICON. Then the fight was on! Battle lines were drawn and the words began to fly. Instead of a group of adults you would think we were a bunch of 8th graders. I'm embarrassed to belong and have thought about quitting and giving my reasons for leaving, but if I did it now there would be another battle over were they 8th graders or 9th graders.