TV and Football

I just finished watching the Oregon-Oregon State football game on my computer because it was not shown on TV. I got to see the box score change as each team scored. It was a high scoring game and must have been exciting to watch, but my TV was showing Kentucky vs Tennessee I think. The Oregon-Oregon State game had a number of wide spread implications depending on the outcome of the game, but it's important to watch Kentucky and Tennessee play, a game that has little interest outside of the region. If anything will drive me off cable to dish it will be the crappy scheduling of regional interest football games. The love affair between sports programmers and the east coast football teams is sickening. West coast teams get short shrift when TV picks poll leaders or great teams. SEC teams with 2 losses are ranked above teams with 1 or 0 losses from the west because they are from the SEC and of course, SEC is a tough league. Yeah, Florida State and Tennessee are just fantastic! Oh well, since they stay in the south there's not much chance of them getting whipped by one of our teams.

I'm Re Retired

If you have been following my on again off again scribbling on this page you know that I have been working full time as a truck dispatcher. Dispatching has been an exciting and stressful task, but I think I got to be fairly good at it. It is amazing how quickly the pay for loads dropped after the stock market crash and the decrease in fuel prices. Where I would hold out for $2.25 per mile before the crash $1.80 per mile is considered very good now. It has been much more difficult to find good pay for the drivers who are now paying for inflated costs incurred before the crash with deflated pay after the crash. One more thing to stress over.

Back to the title of this writing. We have found a dispatcher who can take over my trucks and relieve me of my duties. Today was my last full day as a dispatcher. I will continue to go to the office an hour or so a day to take care of some of the paper work that has to be done in Vale rather than Wisconsin where the new dispatcher lives and works. I have mixed feelings about the end of my work this time around. I will miss the excitement of getting good loads for the drivers, but I will not miss getting up at 6 AM and working until 4:30 PM. I am looking forward to being the chief cook and bottle washer, having time to do my workouts and work in my shop. The pros outweigh the cons in this case. I might even have more time to write!

Leaf Update

The High School Auto Club raked our yards Friday. They finished the three yards in about one and a half hours and filled about 2 dozen garbage sacks with leaves. I had gotten behind mowing up the leaves due to the rain, but they made short order of it.

Thanksgiving Service

Yesterday was my time in St. Thomas, Canyon City. As usual, my neighbor Paul went with me, he is a great traveling companion, helps keep me awake. We talk non-stop on the 2+ hour trip, often telling the same story from trip to trip. On the way back we don't talk so much, worn out from all the early talk.

This Sunday I was asked to stay over and participate in the Community Thanksgiving Service hosted by St. Thomas. We killed the four hours between the services watching football at the home of a couple who are active in the church. We had a great time, much better than driving around the area for 4 hours.

The Thanksgiving Service was great! We sang all of the good old Thanksgiving hymns, Dennis read Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation from 1789, the offering was for the local food bank and I gave a brief homily. Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. They even lit the original 1876 lanterns, an act usually reserved for Christmas Eve. Small towns do this kind of thing best.

To Sleep, Per Chance to Dream...

I'm finally going to have my sleep test to see if I do indeed have Sleep Apnea. My Kidney Dr. recommended I be tested a year ago, but his office fell down on scheduling the test and I didn't remind them. This year they really got on with it and Thursday night I will go to Meridian, Idaho to a sleep center to be tested. I have read the brochures and talked to Cathy, so I am prepared, but I have trouble with people watching me sleep. It really isn't any different than a hospital stay except they don't wake you every 4 hours to give you your sleeping pills. I guess that my biggest concern is the idea that I may have to use a CPAP machine for the rest of my life. My concern is really about being able to sleep with the device that is designed to help you sleep. Rather foolish, I know, but there it is. I guess that if this is the most intrusive thing in my life I shouldn't be concerned. I'll keep my 4 readers posted.

Raking Leaves

We have two trees in our backyard and one in the front. The two in the back are Chinese Elms or something like that. They are messy trees with a lot of dead limbs and seeds in the spring. They give great shade in the summer and keep the yard cool. The tree in the front is an Ash and shades our bedroom. I enjoy all three trees except in the fall when they drop their leaves. My usual practice is to mow the leaves with a lawn mower, but now that I am working 5 days a week I don't have time to do timely mowings and now the leaves are too thick to mow. I have decided to take the local High School Auto Club's offer to rake the leaves of local seniors. I guess that means I am beginning to accept the title of Senior Citizen. As I have stated in other writing, I don't feel like a Senior Citizen, and I even try to rationalize my decision to accept help from the high school kids. I guess I'll just have to accept the favors offered to a 69 year old.

President Obama

First I will happily admit I was wrong about Barak Obama's chances for election. I misjudged the American people, I didn't think that the voters would accept either a woman or an African-American. I am glad to say I was wrong. I think we have made a great decision in electing President-elect Obama. He is a man with great charisma and a very inspiring speaker. I think he will be a great President, especially if he is able to implement his plans. What an historic time! And, for the first time in over 8 years I can talk about My President. Way to go Obama.