I’ve been neglecting trucking lately. Even thinking about trucking is a little depressing. If I can’t write anything good, then I probably won’t write. I don’t want this to turn into a whine fest, which would be real easy nowadays. But to come out here and have a return trip rescheduled, another trip rescheduled and have a trip offered that paid $1 a mile (thankfully, my office turns that stuff down so I don’t have to deal with those idiots) it gets a little depressing with all of the waiting. Waiting isn’t trucking. Okay, waiting is a part of trucking, but it’s not the good part of trucking.

It’s the Economy, stupid.

I received an email from a Chicago Tribune reporter asking for stories about how truckers are dealing with the high cost of fuel. It’s not the fuel, it’s the lack of freight. It’s the lack of good paying freight, not the price of fuel that’s the problem. Fuel is so high, not because oil cost so much, but because the dollar is worth so little. “It’s the economy, stupid”. Think I heard that from somewhere, long, long ago. Now it’s the stupid economy and it’s stupid politicians that are running our economy stupidly.

Like I told the Chicago Tribune reporter, it’s bad, but not impossible. If you’re dedicated to one or two customers, you’re doing pretty good. If you’re waiting for the leftovers or crap from brokers, you may not be doing as well. Brokers that offer crap for a $1 a mile should be shot. It’s way to easy to become a broker nowadays.

I’m sure the reporter is only looking for a sob story to make into a headline then forget about it. So, I’m pretty sure I won’t be hearing from him again.

McCain Romney Ticket?

I saw a report that Mitt Romney would accept the Vice President if McCain asked him. Since McCain has already admitted he doesn’t know the economy, Romney would be a great choice. Then hopefully he would give him more of a role, then just window dressing, as most past VP’s have been. The Presidency is getting so complex nowadays, there should be a bigger role for a VP instead of waiting for the President to kick the bucket. But with McCain, that’s probably a very real possibility.

…the harder they fall.

Barrack is flying too high on wings of wax right now. Something is going to happen either before the nomination or after, where he comes falling back to earth in a hurry. Like most superstars, the quicker they rise, the quicker and the harder they fall when people wake up. Maybe his preacher will be his fall from grace (get it?) How can you listen to a man for 20 years, be a member of his church, say he’s the inspiration for your book (at least the title) and not hold some of the same beliefs? At the very least, think that his preacher’s beliefs aren’t radical. How can the drive-by media give him a pass for that? Especially after the whisper campaign everyone (including Republicans) got away with about Romney’s religion? For be a Preacher and someone that said he had morals, Huckabee was dispicable for what he did.

On top of all that all of his (and Hillary’s) promises are built on a house of cards and someday soon people will realize that (hopefully). Wake Up America.

Enough Politics

During all of the waiting part of trucking I’ve been building a website and doing some work on the inside of Adventures in Trucking. I’ve been reading on how to make websites better for search engines and about what makes a better blog inside and out.

What’s that Zoom thing?

Part of that process is that Blogging Zoom badge. It’s a new service like Digg, but better. It’s geared more toward blogs and bloggers. Feel free to vote and comment if you feel the site and posts are worthy. You vote by clicking on the badge. You’ll have to register, but from then on you only have to click.

Also, I might be doing some rearranging in the next few days, so if you see something different, hopefully it’s for the better. Let me know in the comments or directly (I get an email every time someone comments, so it’s like the same thing) and let me know what you like or don’t like.

Do you believe that feedburner number? I want to thank everyone for their patience and their support during this tough time. And I thought only my family read this! If I could ask for further support by being more involved in Adventures in Trucking by voting, commenting, and telling me what’s good or bad about the site, I promise to be more involved more on my end.

1 Comments

• At March 19, 2008, Elizabeth wrote:

  At International Trucks, we are eager to work with owner-operators to think about possible ways that the industry can work together to advocate for today's truckers. If you are interested in speaking to us about how we can help to shape the future of the trucking industry, please participate in our focus group at MATS on Friday March 28, 2008 from 2:00-3:30 and 4:00-5:30 and Saturday March 29, 2008 from 10:00am-11:30. Please call 866-483-2001 to register.

Told you there was going to be a change! Check out the Libertarian Presidential nominee. You’ve heard McCain, Obama and Hillary. They all sound the same with the same idea. Listen to someone that is so conservative to the point of Libertarian, the Founding Fathers were Libertarian so it can’t be all that bad. This is 40 minutes but worth the time. I like Glenn Beck on the Radio and his Headline News show. Bob Barr is beginning to sound like he’s making sense. Much more than the “mainstream” candidates.

Unless McCain selects Romney as a Vice President, he doesn’t stand a chance against the Obama-phenomena. That’s exactly what it is, because there isn’t any substance to it. Even with Romney as VP, McCain doesn’t stand a chance, but that’s the only way I would vote for him and hope for only a four year term. McCain is just too old, too old school. He’s been in the Senate forever, he’s part of the problem, not the solution.

This interview is a great introduction to Bob Barr’s basic viewpoints. Everything from defense, Iraq, the economy and immigration. You know, the important stuff. Bob Barr‘s Website Libertarian Party‘s Website.

I’ve been home for about a week now. The truck went in the shop for a minor fix, then I took the truck to have the APU fixed. That APU thing has been in the shop so much I’m not sure it’s saved me money or not. It’s always something different. If it goes out again, I may not fix it. It’s nice to have because that’s the only way I have right now to make the microwave work. I need it to watch TV, but I haven’t watched TV in the truck for a long time now and when I do, it’s usually a DVD of a CSI rerun.

RTC Southern Nevada

The mass transit system in Vegas is great. You can take a bus just about anywhere in the metro area. It’s $1.25 to ride one way or $2.50 for a 24 hour pass, as many transfers and any direction for 24 hours. It’s a great bargain. I rode to the shop, picked up the truck, took it to the APU shop, back to the house, then to my dentist appointment the next day. I was in the dentist for so long it was past 24 hours, so I walked home. All buses have bike racks and it takes two seconds to put your bike up or take it down. The website for the bus system has a routing program, you put in your origination, destination and the time of day and it gives you three options. All with times and walking distance and a very detailed map and trip info. It really is pretty cool. And since Vegas is a 24 hour town, a lot of the buses have 24 hour schedules. Those aren’t for the tourists, they’re for the casino workers and everyone else that works the night shifts.

The Bailout Mess

What else have we done? I’ve listened to way too much news. The so-called bailout that wasn’t really a bailout was probably necessary, but all of the extra junk that they put in the bill probably wasn’t. Everyone says they want to fix the problem and not place blame. I would feel a lot better if an investigation was done and people went to jail. Why is this different from Enron? People are losing their retirements and 401k’s just like Enron. Enron lied about their books while the executives were spending shareholder money. People went to jail. In this mortgage security fiasco, people need to go to jail. Maxine Waters, Barney Franks and Chris Dodd would be a good start.

Everyone has seen this video right? The democrats yelling at the regulators trying to tell them Fannie and Freddie are cooking their books, while the democrats are saying there’s nothing wrong.

Chris Dodd on the bank and finance committe getting the most money from Fannie and Freddie? What’s up with that?

What about ACORN?

While we’re throwing people in jail, how about the people at ACORN? And wasn’t Barack Obama training ACORN community organizers and telling them how to intimidate banks with racism if they didn’t make loans to people that couldn’t afford to pay them back? And no one knows who’s fault this is? They can’t have an investigation because it would be like a bunch of foxes trying to determine which one of them raided the hen house when they all did it at the same time they’re all denying it.

ACORN gets raided in Nevada for voter fraud? What a surprise? They actually investigated and raided ACORN’s office. ACORN will have so much power when Obama gets in office they will do anything it takes to get him in office. Did you know in Ohio, when you register to vote, you can place your vote. So if you just make up a name when you register, they can’t check and see if your even eligible to vote until much, much later. If at all. ACORN is working BIG TIME in OHIO. What a stupid system.

I can’t wait for the election to be over. I really don’t think anything is going to get much better and might even get worse, no matter who is in office.

I was going to post about the idiot truck drivers at the Flying J, but decided to put it on Life on the Road – http://lifeontheroad.com/2008/09/24/fired-up/974.html

I’m getting sick of politics, I want to hurry up and have the election so I know whether we are driving off of a a short pier or a long one. The bailout, even if done right is only going to prolong the inevitable. And god forbid Congress actually puts aside politics for a couple of days and get something done. Someone mentions a bailout and spending money and everyone’s hand goes out. Everyone is trying to get their pet projects tagged into this bailout bill and help the poor people that are losing their homes because they’re too greedy. Hey! They’re bailing out the stupid idiots that bought and insured the mortgages, why not everyone? 

What has the Government ever done right? Medicare? Yeah right! Social Security? Don’t make me laugh! An Energy policy? Stop it! My sides are hurting!!! Giving themselves raises and the best benefit package of any company in the country? Okay, you got me there, THAT, they can do.

Congress still thinks they had nothing to do with this? How can they fix it if they don’t even know how they broke it? 

Ron Paul was just a little ahead of his time. If him and Bob Barr could get major coverage as third parties I would actually have hope. I’m predicting if Obama wins, Ron Paul will run again and win in four years. We will be in such dire straits, drastic measures will be necassary for our survival and Ron Paul has the drastic plan to get back to basics. If McCain wins, maybe things will get better slowly. He’s going to have to cut Capital Gains and Corporate taxes, but saying that will be political suicide because everyone hates the rich and especially the rich corporations.

I’ve heard a lot of pundits say that corporations don’t pay taxes, they pass them along to consumers and employees. But in order for us to compete in the world market and get corporations to build new factories, buy new equipment and hire lots of workers, we are going to have to attract them here with monetary incentives.

Obama’s plan? He’s going to make corporations pay taxes and then pay more taxes and make it so they have to create jobs here in America. Oh yeah, and cut the CEO salaries to something more reasonable. You can’t legislate the economy. You can’t force a corporation to do anything when they have to option to leave and build their products anywhere in the world.

And thirty years of “We need an energy policy” from both sides.

Now they say it will be 10 years before we see oil from offshore or from Alaska and it won’t make any difference. Not so much. If the market / speculators / OPEC saw that we were serious about using our own resources the fear that’s built into the market would diminish to next to nothing. There are some that don’t think it would take that long. Maybe for the offshore rigs because there’s more involved and we don’t have the equipment and ships ready to go, a massive offshore project would take awhile. But for ANWR? Probably a lot quicker. The pipeline is already there, the infrastructure and support systems are already there or close by.

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less at American Solutions and American Energy Now.

Ground zero 9/11/2008 Still a hole in the ground.

Seven years ago today an incredible event happened that it seems most people have forgotten. Some people want to completely forget and never want to see anything about the attacks again like Olbermann at the RNC. We need to remember. 9/11 is the reason troops are in Afganistan and Iraq (okay, mostly Afganistan, but there couldn’t be one without the other).

For those that want to remember there are some great pictures over at Peter Nickel and the Video from the RNC that doesn’t say anything political until Olbermann opens his trap. If the Democrats had shown the exact same video I wonder what his reaction would have been.

The outrage should be directed as to why after seven years, there is still a hole in the ground. The bickering about every tiny little thing. The memorial should be done right and everyone’s concerns should be taken into consideration, but not so much as to halt construction of anything. Would you believe someone wanted the names of the hijackers listed as well? Thankfully, that one didn’t make the final cut. But make a decision an get it built. The only thing this hole in the ground honors is the terrorists that did this. The longer this is a hole in the ground the longer it highlights our own inability to do anything. The picture is from today from Earth Cam.

The election is over and America in its infinite wisdom has chosen the candidate that promised them the most stuff. We survived Carter’s debacle and Clinton started with a Democratic majority in Congress, went too far and the Democrats lost their majority. Hopefully, the same thing will happen this time and in two years the Republicans will find their conservative soul and a backbone so we will at least have some checks and balances.

Life on the Road has been offline since Friday. I’ve been lobbying to get more control and the longer it’s down, the better my chances are of getting total control. I’m just a truck driver, but even I know about backups and redundancy. I’ve already offered space on this server with a current backup, I’m not sure of the exact details of the outage yet, so I’m not sure why they can’t restore the site on my server.

I’m also in the middle of decision of my own. I’m seriously investigating another company to work for. The money maybe a little less, but it might be more consistent. I will have to find a place to store the trailer until it’s sold and I may be gone more but the company I’m with now, hasn’t been a trucking company for a long time. It changed into a warehouse and a brokerage that happens to have a few trucks. I’ve made good money and even last month, with almost 50% of my total miles being empty, the loaded miles were really good and made up for it.

The new company will be more like Graebel, that pays a rate per mile with a fuel surcharge, with strict detention and layover rules. It will mean going to Canada and more New York City but the one driver I know over there seems to really like it. Maybe it’s just time for a change.

Probably not. I’ve heard this a few other places that Obama’s Honolulu birth certificate looks a little suspect and his time out of the country, there is an issue with his citizenship. I never realized the Annenberg at factcheck.org is the same Annenberg project in Chicago that Obama’s was connected to. If they were the same you would think someone would have brought that up somewhere by now.

While Life on the Road is having technical difficulties and everyone is watching the country go you know where in a handbasket, watch the last of John, Sarah (Tina) and an appearance by Cindy McCain on Saturday Night Live. Which is actually pretty funny. Someone get me one of those Palin 2012 t-shirts!

If by some electoral miracle, John and Sarah do win the White House, when the dust settles after all the rioting in the streets, this White House will probably do more to encourage people to service only because of their examples. All the charity work that Cindy McCain really does instead of the 1 or 2 percent Obama-Biden give to charity, the military service of John McCain and even the example of a regular mom getting involved in political service. I would rather be led by example than told what to do by someone that makes a teleprompter sound like a sermon. But that’s just me.

Have we hit rock bottom yet? Probably not. The price of oil is dropping, so that’s good right? Not so much. The price of gas is still high and businesses still can’t get the credit or don’t want to invest in any more equipment or people or anything else. If no one buys stuff, there’s no reason to ship that stuff no one is buying. Plus if oil drops, everyone will forget and lose sight of becoming energy independent, like we always do. What’s the point of investing in new technology, new drilling or anything else, when oil’s so cheap? Remember when diesel was over $4.50? Huh? What? When? Britney’s sister is pregnant again? That was just a freak thing that happened, it will never happen again.

Florida is tough for me to get out of with a load on a good day. I thought there were a couple of things lined up, but they fell through. Normal stuff. The truck stop is almost full even in the middle of the day, not good. I’ve noticed a few trucks (moving style trailers like mine) that were already here when I got here and they’re still here, not good.

Is the election over yet?

I can’t listen to any more news. McCain is struggling and it doesn’t look good. I just want to point out a few things: The economy didn’t fall on its butt until this last year. The seven years Bush was in office were actually pretty good, even with the war going on. I keep hearing how there are people in Congress that don’t know how we got here. Figures, since they were the ones that put us here and in their arrogance they can’t see that putting their fingers in the market screwed it up. You would think they would know how to fix it, since they’re the ones that broke it. Admitting you have a problem is the first step in fixing your problem. Or something like that. That’s not going to happen with the arrogance in this Congress.

Joe Biden’s comment about how Obama is going to be tested his first six months was idiotic and if he knows something with some hard facts, he needs to explain himself. If he’s just running off at the mouth like he often does to make himself look important, he needs to just shut up.

But here’s an idea – The price of oil dropping is usually good for the US. For economies that depend on higher prices for oil, it’s not so good. The Saudi’s, the Russians, Venezuala and Iran to name a few. What do they all have in common? They all hate US. One little spark in the Middle East and oil shoots back up to $100 a barrel over night. What could possibly happen in the Middle East really soon? Especially if Barack takes office? Iran isn’t going to do anything with Bush still in the White House. Obama has already put doubts in people’s minds about our relationship with Israel and he has pretty much said he can talk his way out of any situation in the Middle East. While he’s busy talking, Israel is a glass parking lot and oil is even higher than before. Just a thought.

Those were the days.

We lived through the disaster of Carter’s energy plan and foreign policy, I suppose we can live through it again. Hopefully two years isn’t long enough for the Obama-Reid-Pelosi dynasty to do too much damage. Hopefully by next election Republicans will have regained their soul and their backbone and will take back a piece of the House to balance things out a little.

It took a Carter in order for a Reagan to emerge. But the pendulum will have swung so far left by that time, that the next Reagan will be more like a Ron Paul who was really ahead of his time, it wasn’t his time to win yet. I bet he would be doing pretty well if this had happened a lot sooner. Him or someone like him will be the one with the answers and the fortitude and commitment to actually do what will need to be done by that time.

And what will need to be done? Cut government, not with a scalpel but with a chain saw. Ron Paul wanted to just disband a lot of the Federal government because most of the bureaucracy has no real purpose and has no business even existing. Taxes will need to be cut like Reagan did plus a lot more. Some of the states are a little ahead of the curve and will realize what to do before the Federal government and that may be the only thing that saves us from total disaster.

Get your Recession Survival guide, you’re going to need it.

After the spending binge of the next administration, how bad will it have to get before both parties realize they can’t do whatever they want to do with no consequences? I’m not real thrilled about either choice right now, both will take us to the same place, the Republicans were taking us to the brink in a train, while the Democrats want to take a jet. I guess the sooner we hit bottom, the sooner we can recover.

Can it get any better? What’s changenism? And this guy is the head of the Finance and Banking Committee? Wasn’t he connected to Fannie and Freddie? Must have been someone else. It was those evil Republicans that did this. Barney Rubble wants everyone regulated except for the government. Who regulates the regulators? We the People. Or so I used to think.