Chapter 5

Chapter 5

05/23/2008 Friday

It started out as a great day! Then fell off rather quickly but I really didn’t care! I remembered how to start the truck! I even remembered how to shift it! But all the time the Freightliner sat at the yard they didn’t touch it or do any of the repairs it needed! My email didn’t make it to the person in charge! So they decided to fix what “needed” to be done and they will do the rest when I come in again and I am off for a few days or when I can’t drive because of the treatments that will start SOMETIME in my LIFETIME! HELLLLOOOOO! ROFL

Ok, here’s what is happening as I thought I would be doing treatments by now. They (the Doctors) have to wait for my gums to heal and I have no problem with that! I left Saturday to go to Russellville, Ar. to start getting loaded and it took them most of the day to load due to them running out of product, then cutting it later and not bothering to tell the truck driver (ME!) sitting in the truck hooked to the trailer that he could go! If I hadn’t had to go pee I would probably still be sitting there for them to finish! Thank God for weak kidneys! LOL!

I headed on over to Rogers, AR. Get the rest of the load and get home about 0430 on Sunday. I fall into bed after a long and hot one. Shower people a shower! And sleep till 1 pm!
My joke here is, at my age what do you call an all nighter?
Any night you sleep all the way through without having to get up to go pee!

Sunday was a wet one and we watched water start to head up to the garage when the sun finally came out and we had a nice evening! Barb cooked scrambled eggs and sausages for me. The boys had pizza (cry!) and we pretty much just enjoyed playing on the computer the rest of the evening. I love to watch my youngest go crazy in WOW as he has several 70 whatever beasts in there and I laugh at him as he gets mad at people who can’t figure out how to play! It’s so funny about that game. I bought 2 “learn to type” programs and where did he learn? Playing WOW! His grandmother would be so proud of him as she worked for the GSA and could type like 80 wpm! This little speed demon is doing a good 30 wpm and for a 14yo boy that’s good! I guess I’d better start playing WOW so I can quit doing the hunt and peck!

05/24/2008 Memorial Day

Memorial Day the past many years has not been what you would call a “Holiday” for me. Yes it’s one, but I guess 9/11 shook me and put me back on my feet and made me remember Why we have this one day to remember those who served MY country and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for OUR country. It galls me when I see people come on line or anywhere and abuse the freedoms that many in other countries can only hope to have someday. They use these freedoms as a sales pitch for crap, they use them to belittle the memories of the dead and they think they have a RIGHT to be heard because they have the right to speak! Not so! I still can’t find the amendment that says they have the right to be HEARD!

I went to the new National Cemetery in Nixa, Missouri, for the first memorial service held there. There was a small crowd as the weather was bad most of the day so that kept a lot of the crowd home.

There were about 40 Patriot Guard Riders and Combat Veterans there and maybe 200 civilians. The service was somber and I cried as I sang the National Anthem. I met a few new people and headed on home in a drizzle. Thank you God for letting the service stay dry!

Dave my dispatcher called after I got home with a short run for me to do in the morning. I go to Nixa and back then to Siloam Springs, Ar., Carthage, Mo. and then all the way over to Olney, IL. To a Wal-Mart warehouse then back in time for my Thursday appt to finally get my mask made!

The rest of the day was another one for the ducks till about 5 and Mr. Sun did show!

05/27/2008

It’s been a really nice day after the drizzle stopped at noon! I did my Nixa drop came back to Springfield and did a drop and hook and jumped into the pick up to go to the supply house to get a few new 70cc feeding syringes and tape. I can’t believe the costs here! The 2” silk tape is $4.35 a 30’ roll and the syringes were .50 a piece! I kind of figured because the syringes were made from petroleum products they would be in the stupid range! Fifty freakin cents! ROFLMAO! Want to remind me why gas is so high!

I headed on down to Siloam Springs and after getting emptied there I headed north on hwy 59. That is such a beautiful ride along the Elk River and into Missouri! I would love to take a bike ride through there someday! The valleys and low hills were awesome!

I get here at about 1730 and am still waiting for the call to go down into the caves. I HATE Americold! Want to sit for unreal amounts of time? Get an Americold load!
Oh, well, I have till 1700 tomorrow to get to Olney!

05/28/2008
Wednesday 0730

Yep I just got home! Stupid Americold! Got out of there at 0500 this morning! No one likes to go to either of their warehouses in the Joplin/Carthage, Mo. area as they are NEVER on time! They could care less about the drivers and even less if the driver has to run illegally to get to whoever was dumb enough to buy their products! Or if the product gets to the receiver on time! Once on the truck it’s yours and you can do what you want!

I did! Took it to the yard and dropped it! There is another driver who will take it to Olney, Il, and he can get there on time and then go for another load. Me I have an appointment tomorrow that I can’t miss!

If Americold had gotten me in and loaded when they made the appt for I could have made a little extra money for these bills, but oh well! There isn’t anything in the trailer worth dying for!

Now, try this. Go to your doctors office or dentists or a job interview, get there late and see what happens! You’ll sit at the doctors and dentists until they can get you in and you damn sure won’t get the job!

But shippers and receivers have the trucking industry over a barrel when it comes to appointment times! Make it there on time and you can either get right in and unloaded or be unlucky and sit all day! Make it there late and you’ll have to reschedule even though there are 20 trucks still sitting there for their 0300 appt time and it’s 1030! This is another reason you the public are paying a little extra for your food and other products. The trucking industry, in an attempt to get the receivers and shippers to honor fast and on time appointments and keep from losing revenue that they could be making hauling freight instead of warehousing it, are charging these places hundreds of dollars for detention times starting usually after the second or third hour! Some of these they actually have to take to court to get the charges and of course it just gets passed on to the rest of you! That’s your transportation lesson for today! I’m finished venting for today!

Now to go out and wash the truck, car and bike! Yes it’s another drizzly day but I have to take the P/U down to get a piece of trim replaced from it’s recent tornado experience and it needs to be clean where the piece goes! And while the hose is out get the rest of the motor pool here at the house washed too!



2230 I think!

Time for bed! What a day! Took the P/U down for a piece of trim to be put back on, then to Wal-Mart, then to my stepsons store at Popeye’s where they didn’t have enough money in the bank for his pay check last week! And, “Oh, we didn’t know you were coming in to get it today”! Geeze Louise he’s a little slow, not stupid! You don’t have to be completely brain dead not to want the money you worked your butt off for! Especially at the Popeye’s here in Springfield where they treat the mentally handicapped like chit!

The funny thing is Brian has managed to outlast every single manager, assistant manager and employee for the last (almost) 6 years and everyone else in the Popeye’s “now almost extinct” franchise except for the owners!! He’s slow but one of the smartest kids I know! I Love you Brian! He’ll out last the owners, I bet, as looking at their “moves” in the business world, it’s less than impressive such as not having enough cash in the bank to cover a paltry $150.00 paycheck, or pay for the garbage to be picked up or keeping the water heater repaired to clean chicken prep areas clean! And now they are going to remodel the store on Kearney St and turn it into a day care? They can’t run a fast food business how the hell do they think they can run a day care! This I give 4 months and it to will close! Any 1st year BA at college knows the employees come first THEN the owners! No employees, no income! And, they’re putting up Obama posters so that should give you a hint at to their intelligence level!

Anyway, LOL, we get home and I wash the car and the bike, and as the sun starts to peek out from behind the clouds I start to wax the car with the buffer for the 1st coat of wax and when I got done went down to the garage and pulled the seat off of the bike and did a good buffing on the tank and a hand job (lets get your brains out of the gutter!) on the rest!

Now, I know there’s a bed in the house somewhere! Night all!


05/29/2008 Thursday

Finally got my mask done today! It’s a very interesting process. I was startled to find out that the mask starts out as a sheet of plastic about 24”x24” square and looks like those basketball shirts with all the holes in them with a frame around it. The nurses have already started the process by putting the sheet in a hot bath that’s about 180* and as it’s getting warm they get me set up on the table of a CT scanner. I have to hold the handles of a bungee cord that is attached to a sheet of hard plastic that is under my feet and this pulls my arms down and my shoulders to the table top.

After making sure I’m straight and lined up on the table they get the sheet that is now nice and toasty and put it over my face and try to suffocate you with it! Just like holding a pillow over your spouses head to stop the snoring! Well it seemed like that but with 2 women doing it to you! They have to work fast before it cools and work it down your face around the jaw and snug around the neck and across the chest and then use the plunger snaps to hold it to the table until it’s completely cold. The table top is set up with holes set into the table and apparently set to a standard in this field. It is actually down and across my upper chest down to my nipples. As it cools it becomes rigid and hard the nurses are putting markers on the mask on the forehead and both temples and then they cover me with a blanket and run me thru the CT scanner so they get the locations of the markers and they can now set up the programming for the radiation treatments.

When they took me out of the scanner and unsnapped me from the table and after I was dressed I got my glasses on I looked at the thing and she asked how it felt and I suggested maybe a little more air through the nose would be nice and she cut that out as breathing is kinda nice! I asked when I get my “tattoos” and she told me I wouldn’t get any as the little makers now in the mask were all that was needed. I’m STILL mad about that as I was promised tattoos and now I don’t get them! ROFL!

I finished up and met still another nurse, “Beki” who filled me in on another process that I’ll go thru about 30-45 minutes before I start my radiation treatments. I get a drug called Amifostine.
As she put it I’m still “young” enough (she almost got a kiss for THAT one!) that I don’t want to go through the rest of my life with no taste buds or saliva glands working and this stuff will help to protect them. That’s great till she tells me that I have to take these shots of about 8ml, which is actually 2 shots, EVERY DAY of treatments! Whoa, there Doc! What about this high dollar port I have here?

Her reply was these shots have to be subcutaneous (I had to look it up to spell it!) and I’m thinking great, MORE freakin needles! I’m wondering if I survive this do I get some kind of college credits to use somewhere as I’m learning so much medical stuff it should be worth something somehow, with what it’s costing me so far!
Turns out this stuff lowers the blood pressure, can cause nausea and irritation around application sites! If she didn’t have the most beautiful brown eyes and perky nose I’d have started crying! How about a degree in math? That’s 60 freakin shots on top of some more that they haven’t “warned” me about! HMM take stock out in a needle manufacturing company maybe? LOLOL!

I make a stop at the American Cancer Society and the lady up there gives me a couple of brochures for a few of the up coming ACS happenings around town and I talk to her for a few minutes and she gives me a “kewl” do rag to wear when my hair starts to fall out! It’s a patriotic one with stars and stripes and “Easyriders” across the front!

I go home and put on my PGR vest and head to the new Missouri Veterans cemetery for a “Flag Line Mission” for an Air Force Vet who just passéd, Gregory (Ski) Kobierski. It was a beautiful day, nice and warm which made it a fitting parting for his family.

That done I came home finished painting a screen for the front door and did not much of anything for the rest of the day! Yes, I said paint a screen! If you spray paint a screen black it’s actually easier to see through!

I should wake up in the morning and see what tomorrow brings!

06/01/2008

Friday morning I get a call from Dave my dispatcher, with a load going to Bass Pro in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for 0500 Saturday morning. Not a problem as I don’t do much on Friday except to work on balancing my check book which I have pretty much not looked at since November of last year! Thank God for Quicken! I do a few pages and then get my shower and get ready to head out. I do notice that I’m a little sore around the Peg (feeding tube) and a little red but shrug it off.

I get hooked up and head on to OK City and after a couple of hours I realize that moving is becoming a problem! After I get to OK City and figure out where I need to park I pull out my “Man Purse” and get my “medical kit” as I call my temporary cleaning supplies for my second mouth!

Taking my shirt off I realize that maybe doing all of that car washing and waxing wasn’t such a good idea as I’m really red and sore as hell!

I clean everything and then use the alcohol swabs and apply mass quantities of Neosporium and cover it all up and send a message to dispatch about getting me back when empty as I’ll need to go in and see the doctor.

The next morning my alarm goes off and as I get up I’m not as sore get dressed and check in with the guys at Bass Pro. I swap trailers and head to the Petro truck stop just down the street and lay back down waiting for dispatches decision on what to do. 0900 and they send a message for me to return back to Springfield.

I get back and call the doctors off and while talking to the nurse I’m looking at my stomach and realize that the infection is pretty much gone and she tells me not to worry about it this time BUT next time call so I can be given more antibiotics! I have to agree with her!

I go back to Quicken and listen to it laugh at me as it boots up and do a little more work on the check book! Note to self: Every month dummy!


Sunday is a laze around the house day. That is until I agree to help my wife highlight her hair!