Fort Bridger, WY

Picturebox: Mystic River

Lots of driving today. Listened to a bunch of the new Rollins stuff I got, all of which are good. I need to listen to one of them while parked because the recording is bad. Or maybe it's the sound system of the venue. It's really soft so you have to turn the volume loud but when Rollins yells it's way loud that your ears are about to explode. And Rollins yells often.

Started watching Natural Born Killers but couldn't watch that now. Just remembered the thing about getting Oregone permit, which is good because without it I could get a $400 ticket. I have to pick up snow chains in Idaho tomorrow, hopefully I won't need it. Driving to Baker City, OR tomorrow, hopefully, if the weather permits, and then finish off to Portland on Monday, do the delivery, and park at the TA in Troutdale and maybe call Mike and see if he can come down and hang out or something.

Today was all right driving, but, as always, gets bad between Cheyenne and Laramie. It's always windy as fuck there and blowing snow and icy spots and throughout the drive you see at least three to four trucks blown off the road and then you start wishing that you never became a truck driver.

Outs. Gonna do some writing.

Lexington, NE

Jukebox: Henry Rollins - Eric the Pilot

Dropped Jeanne in Omaha earlier today so she can take care of her mom while she recovers from her knee surgery. First time driving alone and at first I was all right, but after stopping for the night and getting groceries and stuff and settling in, I really miss her. I don't like being in places that's not home and being alone.

Actually, I could, but I feel differently about being in a truck. When alone in other situations I could deal with it; I have dealt with it in other situations.

Anyway, the other night in NY I stopped to fuel and started it and was about to put the bungee cord on the fuel dispenser so it doesn't pop out and it pops out and drenches my pants with diesel fuel. I got really pissed and got in the truck and changed while swearing up a storm and throwing stuff around. Jeanne threw my pants in the laundry bag, because she wanted to help out since I was having a fit.

Anyway, I should've stopped there for the night and showered and done laundry, but I thought it better to head on.

Long story short, last night we washed the laundry twice and it still smells of fuel. I had one set of clothes left which I only found out today when I stopped to shower.

So I'm at the Wal-Mart in Lexington and bought a new pair of Dickies and a four pack of black Hanes pocket-T's. I also bought vinegar, but forgot baking soda, for the laundry to do it again to get the fuel smell off.

I bought a shit ton of groceries and a CD player and I got my MiniDiscs and a bunch of Henry Rollins CD's, new ones. Super stoked about that.

I still need to get his first season of his show and the uncut from NYC. Got a lot of stuff to get later.

Well, more later. I'm outs for now. Gonna kick back and listen to some Rollins, read, and sleep.

...Part Two

And just who does he think he is, like he's the Godfather or something? Like he has the power to make or break someone's career?!

I don't even know what the deal is that makes him such a public persona. I can't wait to hear Timbaland or whatever the fuck that new shit is. I wonder if Dr. Dre's on it so he can finally be down with Eminem and be like, "Yo, Man. I'm a rapper, too! Let's go kick it g-style with a side of home slice, yo!...But I got to be home by ten and read Britney her bedtime story."

And apparently there's this sexyness competition between him and Prince. That just seems really stupid and such a worthless piece of news. And Prince made some confrontational, subtle blow to him saying something like, "To that person who says sexy is back, sexy never left."

Rustin Timberlake

So apparently, instant cool/tough-guy and now, apparently, career-saving producer, Justin Timberlake is going to help Britney's ever-sinking career by producing and recording a song with her.

So this music prodigy who's going to save Britney's career can't come up with anything but a cover song. I mean, this is good in that we don't have to hear another Justin-being-heartbroken-over-Spears-over-and-over again song, but a cover song?! No effort whatsoever. Since the world is dying for yet another cover-anything. Like the past ten years of artistic output on any medium has been anything but covers and all that fucking shit. And it's "You're All I Need to Get By" a song Marvin Gaye dueted with some lady. I can't wait to hear this gem. I'm sure if Marvin Gaye were alive today and realized that one of his songs was being covered, he'd be touched by that. But then realizing it's Justin Timberlake, in a career boosting move for Ms. Spears, he'd give hiss an AK, Sawed-off shotgun, and a grenade.

Waterloo, IN

We're stopped in Waterloo, IN with a delivery tomorrow morning and picking up another in Lafayette, IN to Portland, OR. I was all excited to be out of the eastcoast but not excited to be dropping Jeanne home for a few weeks.

I then heard about the weather in the northwest. We'd been in such nice weather that I hadn't even thought about the rest of the country being bad, but then I hear of tornado watches and snow storms and all that jazz.

I hope it dies down by the time I get there.

Tewksbury, MA

So I misdid my hours and did have some available much to my dismay. I don't know why, but at just before 1400 hours, I got a dispatch from York, PA to this place and the load was available since 9 in the morning. We had been sitting around all day waiting for a load. This bothers me for two reasons. 1) as mentioned in aforementioned blog, the truckstops in the Northeast fill up by around four. 2) It gave us just enough time to get there not taking into account traffic or anything of the sort.

Traffic is the thing that got us. On the I-78 East, there was a back up for miles and it wasn't moving a bit. We were thinking an accident that blocked the lanes and needed to be cleared and cleaned up or something to that extent. Not the real reason being that there was construction and it went to one lane for about 8 miles. All that congestion was for the FUCKING MERGE!!! I moved about 10 miles in two and a half hour thanks to that shit.

All the while there's this car full of teens who were having a good time getting out of their cars and doing carwheels between lanes and walking through the lanes and the median and all. Then they got me to honk and cheered. Then they tried to get another trucker to honk and he didn't and they flipped him off. They started harassing other cars and throwing things at people and driving on the shoulder lanes on both sides of the interstate, overheating once.

Then another car this college age kid sits on his window sill and starts making gestures towards other cars. Then other people get out of their car to observe what they can't see or do anything about. One in particular, when traffic started moving a little, kept swerving into the shoulder as to get a glimpse ahead of what could possibly be the deal. Every twenty seconds or so he'd do this. This is all with the same view in sight the entire time, meaning that there's nothing new he could see off in the distance but he keeps trying. Then, at the sign that says, "right lane closed. Merge Left," he goes into the right lane so he can get ahead of the pack.

Needless to say, we were late for this delivery. Coming to this place we encountered the same stopped traffic for miles all for a 10 foot section closed in the right lane.

The good thing that I've noticed is that their public radio stations play good music as opposed to just classical and jazz like every other one in America.

We're stuck here now and waiting for a load.

I'm outs.

Shippensburg, PA

Sort of good, but not, we're stuck in Shippensburg, PA because I only have 15 minutes left on my work week clock, so I have to wait 34 hours before my clock resets and I can drive again. The good news is that we get a day and a half off, we have some money and we're at a truckstop with a restaurant diner. The bad news is that whatever load I drive and deliver by Monday midnight goes on my check that I get on Thursday so unless I get a 500 mile or less run that delivers by Monday night, I won't get anymore in for my next check.

No problem, though. I just wish that I was stuck near somewhere with more stuff to do, but it's okay since I can't afford to spend lots of money and I just ordered some Rollins stuff and books and need to save for the "Henry Rollins Show" and "Live From NYC - Uncut." He's doing a live from Tel Aviv two night spoken word thing as well. Fuck! This guy needs to stop doing stuff so it stops costing me so much time and money just to...I can't keep up!!!! I hope IFC releases those ones as well.

It's an overcast day here in PA. Got some stuff to read, write, and watch. Just ate and may go up the street in a bit to see what's around this here area. I wish we could do the reset somewhere like Chicago or Omaha or Princeton, IL. Those be good places. I hope to stay out of the Northeast for a while, but probably not.

On top of the myriad things I hate about drivers and stupid, poorly signed places, and finding a space at a truck stop in the evenig, all that pales in comparison to the good ol' northeast. For instance, twice in one day at toll booths on the New Jersey Turnpike I had to stop before entering because only at that point do you realize it's only cash only and I have an EZ Pass and no cash. So the first one, I noticed with enough time, but mother fuckers don't let you in.

Now I don't mind much when cars don't want to be behind a truck and they don't let you in. But there's something that makes me want to smash them into the guardrails when you've only a certain amount of time or space left before you can't exit or need to get out of lane because of poorly signed things that don't say, "exit only." But if you don't want to be behind a truck, fucking speed up, fall back, or switch fucking lanes. Don't just fucking keep your current speed when the truck's got his goddamn blinkers on.

I've only had this toll booth thing happen to me twice. Both the same day on the New Jersey turnpike. It never happened before because I pay attention to all signs and, well in advance, I get into the appropriate lane for all the right reasons. NJTP just doesn't sign it well and/or put stupid, unnecessary things that just confuses people.

Another thing is the poorly signed stuff and wrongly signed things. Poorly signed I can go on and on but the one thing I've noticed most is they'll have a lot of signs like, "I-95 South Next Left," put a quarter mile before a left with no signs or anything else around that left. So you're left with a decision to assume that, since that obviously is the next left, to take that, or chance it that the sign meant the next left after the next one coming up. That could easily be remedied with a sign that says, "second left," or moving that current "next left" sign at that upcoming left or just after, leaving no doubt to a driver's mind that the next left definitely is the left you're looking for.

Wrongly signed are things like on an interstate sign, the exit number on top of the sign is either on the right or left which tells you what side, right or left, so you know in advance what lane to be in. So there are stuff like that with the exit number on the left so you go through rush hour east coast traffic and then it's on the right. Not too mention, they have their service areas in the middle of the interstate so you have exit left. It makes no sense. You force all these trucks to cut across four lanes of traffic, why not minimize the dangers?

Then there's the truckstop deal. They all fill up by about four in the afternoon. It's all around craziness. I need to stop thinking about this.

Peace

"Donny-D's on the Back Up..."

I forgot to mention. This is the first time I'd ever been to Connecticut and the only thing that I know about this place is that the WWE headquarters is here and I got to see it. I thought about a lot of things, but the one that kept it going the most was the rooftop match.

Great story, Brett.

Branford, CT

Done for the day. Got a short day tomorrow and looking forward to that and this and I will be dropping Jeanne of in Omaha next week so she can take care of her mom who just had knee surgery and how much longer can I keep this sentence going?

Went near Lancaster, PA the other day.

Watched Mystic River the other night and was blown away. Fuck! Talk about a great story and even better acting. Everything about it was great, except the kid who played Just Joe's kid, though he was pretty bad-ass later in the film.

All actors were fucking great in their roles. I don't know how much I can stress that. Sean Penn, though...he had me at hello!

I got a little extra cash so I'm getting some Rollins stuff. His shows being released on DVD along with his uncut from NY. Gotta save for that, but it'll be good, for sure. Just look at his guest/musical guest (although the only questionable music guest is Dashboard Confessional, though I don't think Rollins books the musical guest, even though Slayer's on one of the shows). I want to see them all, but am really curious to see the Penelope Spheeris w/ John Doe as musical guest, on account of the past and the six-degress w/ Kevin Bacon between them.

Outs for now. More later.

Peace

Bethel, PA

It's funny that there's this big controversy about this James Cameron show on the discovery of a tomb that may have been Jesus'. They said that they're not trying to change Chritianity or prove that he doesn't exist or anything of the sort, but, rather, it's just something fascinating that they discovered and it's just something interesting that they thought they'd share with the world. It's not saying one thing or another, but it's just that when you have a theory, it's just a theory. Not fact, but a theory based on certain evidence, but it's nothing proven and can go anyway.

Of course Christians are all up in arms about it and, or course, Fox News, who had a scholar on there explaining what James Cameron and his party explained better than I did in aforementioned paragraph. Of course the news pundit kept cutting him off and naysaying him on things that he hadn't said yet because he needed to say something before answering pundit's questions in order for his answers to make sense.

So how does Fox News invalidate anything this religious scholar has to say, what else but bring in (drum roll) Kirk "mother fucking" Cameron. The guy who single-handedly detroyed "Growing Pains" because this fucker couldn't put his goddamn religious principles aside and do a job and, of course, just inflict his beliefs on everybody on the show, including the writers, who had to drastically change the show to meet fucking Jesus Christ's new earthly representative, which brought on Leonardo Dicaprio, which sent the show into it's downward spiral into non-existence.

When Kirk talks, Fox News pundit is all fucking ears. Kirk says stuff about how every Easter someone tries to take shots at Christianity and the Bible and tries to disprove either one of them. And how he likes to focus on "uplifting things" like the Left Behind series, which I'd like to read (Jeanne has) and see how, most likely, it's interpretation is all fucked up like most Christians' on the Bible. I don't know much about it except that when the Rapture comes, the Christians will instantaneously go to Heaven or something and the rest of the world will be in destruction in all this greusomeness. Very uplifting stuff. I'd like to watch that movie as well.

Secondly, Kirk says that he, unlike James Cameron and his cronies, "believe in facts." I could go on and on about this one, but let's just focus on the most obvious one, being that we're talking about Left Behind, and point out that the Rapture is nowhere to be found in the Bible. Go and check it out.

News pundit guy asks Kirk how he deals with being an outcast in Hollywood, being a Christian and all. I'll end it here.

We're in PA now and it's supposed to rain/sleet tonight. We're done for the night and gonna read a bit and crash. I made a delivery to Allentown, PA and set my availability for tomorrow morning and drove west about thirty miles to a truck stop there so as not to have a Jersey run tomorrow.

As I pulled into the truck stop I received my next dispatch. It's from here to Jersey and then picking up another from Jersey then going to North Carolina. I like Kevin Smith and all, but fuck Jersey. At least driving a truck there. Just looking at the directions it's all fucked up an complicated. It took me about forty-five minutes to route it all up just for the delivery. I haven't even looked up the dispatch after that. Hopefully just pick up and head out of Jersey and then stop for the night.

For the moment our laptop is back and running. I left my minidisc folder at home, accidentally, so I have just the same one I've had for the past month that I was glad to not listen to for a while. We have a tape deck on this truck so I'm learning Russian while Jeanne freshens up on her's. We also have the minidisc player and a CD player to hook up, as well as a way to hook up our DVD player's speakers to have surround sound.

I also need to look for my warranty on my minidisc player as I've worked it to the bone and the buttons are all screwy now and all that jazz. It sort of works. I can get it to play, but it doesn't always skip tracks or record and to skip back a track, it puts a track mark and it's just all sorts of stupid.

Mike D just called me and invited us to his wedding on May 26. We may be able to make it as Charlie's in on July 1. I wish people would stop getting married until we get financially stable. My brother's getting married in April and we're definitely not going since it's in Hawai'i. Not that we can't go there or we're not allowed to go there or swore an oath never to go there, it's just that we can't get that much time off or get the money to get there.

I hope that Rollins 4-disc thing on Ebay is there tomorrow.

Recent Jukebox: "Phil Hendrie Show," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Into the Great Wide Open, Bill Hoover, Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder, Rollins, NPR.

Current reads: Screenwriting book, Huckleberry Finn, Bill Hicks: Love All the People, Tropic of Capricorn.

Current films: too many to list, but I need to get more. Thinking of getting Netflix again once caught up with bills. I think there's one that you can rent 10 or something at a time and since we're on the road, that would work out great if we can get home every couple of weeks or so.

I need to stop writing and eat or something.

Peace

Bruce Banner

I don't know what the deal is with Colin Farrell. He's in a lot of bad movies, but he's in some good ones. But the thing of it is that no matter what movie it is that he's in, it's just so hard to watch him.

Especiall in Alexander. As hard as it is to watch him in the other films like Ask the Dust, it's even harder to watch him play this muscular leader of an army and conquering all these countries and shit. You just can't sell me on that. Ask the Dust was a good movie and, of course, the book is just as great, if not better.

I wish I still had it, because I was itching to read it the other year when I read Post Office, but I had kept with the tradition of the copy I had and passed it on to Headley, because I had received it from Bill Hoover who received it by Simon Joyner and Bill told me that I should pass it on to someone after I'd read it. It sucks, though, because I lost the Darktown House Band bookmark that was in it.

I can only imagine how horrible Miami Vice is. The idea of a movie version sounded bad enough but throw in Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell and words cannot describe how bad of a picture your mind could possibly fathom. It'd be sort of like, uh...get you!

New Train, New Life...

So in short, the new company's great. It's everything we thought trucking would be from the get-go and we actually like trucking now.

As for Swift, the former company, those fuckers (on top of everything else they've done) give you a bonus after you complete your first dispatch and Jeanne never got her's. I almost didn't get mine but I had to slowly explain to the ever-incompetent accounting department that I didn't. Jeanne had no such luck and ended up not getting it. It was $500.

Anyway, it was no big deal except for the fact that now that we've quit, they want it back and sent it to a collection agency and if we don't pay within 30 days of quitting, they'll put a judgement against us. This on top the fact that they made us no money through the month of January. Mind you, I had three paychecks less than $10.

Added to that, my last paycheck was kept by them because they're afraid I'm not going to pay the rest of the tuition reimbursement, which I was until they left me stranded and jacked me for the last check.

They work out this payment plan where they take $75/paycheck for 13 months and then you pay back the tuition for getting you your CDL. No big deal, except they should work on a scale where they take a percentage or nothing if your paycheck is less than $500. That would've left me something instead of nothing and leave us struggling to even get by on the $200/week to pay current bills and for food.

Fuck all that. That's in the past now. Except for the $1000 we now owe to some fucking collection agency. What's that, one more to my debt and another judgement.

Back in Omaha for a day and a glorious day it be. I got a 12 pack of Sam Adams and getting computer fixed as we speak. Hope it works so we can be back online and shit.

I'll be back later with a more interesting blog.