Sold

Today I sold one of the water containers. Thanks Mat. I sold the garden tractor the first day. I'm impressed with how easy and efficient it is to sell on Graig's List. I will be using it more.

Vacation Postponed One Week

We decided to drive. We will leave a week later than planned. August 14th is the new leave day. I posted a couple of items on Craig's list. The one I thought would not have interest sold inside of an hour. A Sears 1970's garden tractor with a plow and a bad motor. I called it a POS. I also placed one for a 275 gallon water tank. $100 each. Hope to sell it also.

To drive or fly

I am getting ready to take a 10 day vacation from work. I want to go to Colorado, but don't know whether of not to just drive or to fly. To drive would cost about $100 or so more than to fly. However; to drive with Shiloh might me easier for her. I should make the decision today, due to the fact that tickets will go up if I wait till the last minute. I need to mow the grass around the barn, or just plow it. It can be a fire issue later in the year when it dries out and is right up to the building. Grass fires aren't out of the question. With the steel roof and block construction, I think I'm pretty safe. I do have some wooden doors, that could burn. Anyway it would just be good to be there and look it over. I am looking forward to leaving here and being there permanently next year. So to spend a week or so there is what I look most forward to. These pictures are late in the year when the grass is dry.

1953 Chevrolet 2 Ton

I was looking at some of my picture files, after downloading my camera, and came across these. This is my 1953 Chevrolet 2 ton with a grain box on the back. It is an end dump. The grain trucks came with either an end dump or a side dump. When I bought the truck in eastern Colorado, the back window was boarded up to keep the rain out. When I went to clean it out, there was about a bushel of corn under the seat. The seat smelled like mouse pee. It was the old cotton and horse hair, covered in vinyl. I bought some foam and an upolstry kit and after replacing the window, restored the interior. Machaniclly it was in pretty good shape. I did have to replace the radiator a year or so after I bought it. It is great fun to drive. I have to put on my costume to go anywhere in it though. That consists of bib overalls, a long sleeve plad shirt, and my John Deere cap. I could ware a straw hat in the hot sun. It is parked on my ranch in Colorado now. I will probably have to clean the carborator and put fresh gas in it when I get home next year.

Wild Woman

Another evening indoors due to more rain.

Our new life with a wild woman keeps us smiling.

We also got a sympathy card in the mail from Indian Trail Animal Hospital. It was signed by all three Doctors and all the staff. When we took Shiloh in for her first exam, the staff was almost in tears thinking of Rion. This card came just 3 days later. He was just a dog, but a special one.

A much needed rain

On Sunday afternoon Becky sent me a text to let me know that she was at the convention in Longmont CO. I asked how Dinny was doing and she said he was being good.

On Monday we got a very much needed rain. When I got home, we had left overs and played with Shiloh.

Puppy Energy

Play! Play! Play!
Only one of us with
any energy by the
end of the day.

40th Year has Begun

May 26th I posted "Name that Date" July 7, 2011. On that day I will have completed 40 years in transit. I had just dropped out of my Senior year of college, due to finances and one child. Hard to believe he's 40 now. Got a temporary job driving a city bus. I left there 33 years later with a full retirement, less any medical. To stay there after age 55 and 30 years, would not have increased my retirement any. Moved to Charlotte NC and started work on their new Light rail line. They needed an experienced person in Safety, and I needed medical insurance. The attached picture, is the one that was taken when I finished training on July 8, 1971. I was 21. It looks just like me, only younger. My current picture looks just like me only older. I'm somewhere in between.


A glass lens can only print what it sees!

In 1971 I dropped out of my senior year of college, due to $0 and a child. My first wife and I moved to Denver and I got a job at a furniture store. I was unloading box cars and assembling furniture. I didn't see a future in that business. I saw an ad for a truck driver at a local brick yard. I called in sick and went to apply. The address took me to an area that had a driveway with a building and a lot of bricks stacked behind. The bricks were across a RR track and I missed the driveway that went across the tracks. I went into the building that was up front. It was the wrong place. I walked down the hall and saw a door that said "Personnel". I walked in and a man at a desk asked me "Can I help you?"
I replied that I was wanting to apply for a job.
He said, "As a driver?"
I said yes.
He replied, "They would kick my ass right out of here if I'd hire a guy like you".
I asked why.
He said, "Look in that mirror".
I said that if he was talking about my hair, I could cut it.
He said,"What is your name".
I told him and he replied, " Hear fill this out, get your hair cut, and come back tomorrow." As I was filling out the application, I noticed that there was a symbol of a tire with wings in one corner and a streetcar in the other. No bricks.
He said that it paid $3.77 per hour after training, but that training was paid at $8 per day for 4 weeks. He also said that I would have to buy a watch.
I told him that I had a watch.
He said, "It has to be a special watch".
When I left, it was about 8:30 am, and the morning rush hour buses were coming in. I then realized that I had applied for the wrong job. However; it seemed that he might be interested and the advertised pay for the brick yard was $1.75 per hour.
I went directly to the barber shop and asked for white walls around my ears.
I left the barber shop and went directly back to the bus administration building and returned to Personnel.
When I walked in he said to me, "May I help you"?
I replied that I had gotten a hair cut.
He said, "What is your name." When I responded he said, "The hell it is, sit down".
About a week later I started training. I completed training on July 7, 1971.
July 8, 1971 was my official first day.
At that company, then Denver Tramway, Now the Regional Transportation District (RTD), your anniversary date is the only guaranteed holiday. I never worked on July 8th until I got to Charlotte.
Come to think of it, I should have taken the day off.
I will not make that mistake again.
I turn 62 on July 27, 2011, and I don't want to be working in transit after that. Enough is enough!
So form what I can see now I think that July 7, 2011 is my last day in transit.

Eat Light and Stay Hydrated

Hot in the east. Hot in the south. Hot in southwest Texas. Must be July! I predict a cooling trend over the next 6 months.

At the end of the work day today I completed 39 years in transit. Tomarrow I start year 40.

985121004698544

Shiloh has been CHIPPED. We took Shiloh to the vet today. She got a clean bill of health. We also got a computer chip placed under her skin between her shoulder blades. I hope an owl doesn't get her. The chip wouldn't do much for that. I'm the alpha male and I'll protect her! That makes 2 women in my life. One of them weighs 4lbs 2oz. The other doesn't want the numbers in print.

Welcome Shiloh

We went to Charlotte Douglas International Airport to pick up Shiloh. She is 8 weeks old and will be living with us now. She is a world class traveler, and has been to places like Stark KS, where she was born and raised. Then she traveled by car to Kansas City Airport, traveled to Chicago IL, then to her new home in Matthews, NC.

To Stump or not to Stump

When we move to North Carolina almost 5 years ago, some friends told us that they had a argument in their family as to whether or not you should Stump your Crap Myrtle trees. Doug said you should to keep the wind from breaking them. Tracy, Doug's daughter, said you should leave them. Last evening we had some heavy rain, no wind, just heavy rain, and the weight of the water on the heavily blooming tree broke it. The only one in the area that broke was in my yard. Go figure.