Top of the mornin me lovely! Happy st patty's day! My irish just loves this day.

Stupid snow! I am so hating winter right now!

The Saints

WHO DAT!!!!!!!!GEUAX SAINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ok i realize that the superbowl was like two days ago but i am still so excited and had to say that! being from louisiana i have always been a "fan" of the saints. every year when people talk about football, and being in trucking alot of people talk about football, i would reference the saints and talk about their usual method of play, great in the first half suck in the second (this applied to games and seasons). i would sorta pay attention to the stats of the season but since i dont really watch football but maybe 3 times a year, thanksgiving, new years and superbowl, i never really had a team or really knew stats. like i said if it came up i had the saints, when there was talk of maybe them moving after katrina i got pissed off, as they plowed through this season i payed attention. so i am very happy my guys won. they deserved it. they are the only saints grouping that got as far as they did so they deserved the win. well enough bragging and all more later.

ohhh pretty snow....bah humbug

so alot of people this time of year look out side and see the wonderful horrid snow and say "how pretty". really?! pretty??!! no f'ing way! as a driver i see it and think "great where is the ice", "what patch of crap am i gonna hit", "does this state even own a snow plow?!" you see as a driver who HAS slipped and also wrecked in winter conditions, i find the "pretty" no longer exists in the snow covered hills. sure if i'm sitting in front of a roaring fire in a cosy house, snuggled up with francis (the new guy in my life), i love the images out the window or on tv, but right now and for the most part i am in my truck on the interstate for these winter storms. right now i am in a trk stop in tenn wondering if they have salt trks in this part of the state. over in the memphis area they sure dont seem too. last year i went slip sliding on the roads at 25mph! damn put down some salt! ok so im just grumpy right now because i cant stand winter weather and it looks like it will be late feb before i see francis again :( it doesnt help any that i recently quit smoking and normally spend my winters in the south, but because i recently meet francis and we are in the beginning phases of courtship and he lives near baltimore, im spending my winter more north than i usually do. now this part i am not complaining about. i love spending time with francis! he is sweet, fun, adorable, so f'ing cute and a GREAT cuddlier. and its been about a mnth since i quite smoking so that is not as big a deal other than it used to help in stressful situations like driving in this mess. well not much else right now sorry it took me so long to write a post ill try to make at least one a week but want to try and make one a day or every other day at least. well more tomorrow, i hope lol.

Truck "stall" politics

so in the "real" world we have fox news, cnn, msnbc, hln and all the other media outlets with their pundits and commentators telling us how to think and what to believe. in the trucking world you have the bathroom stall. a myriad of graffiti artists, potty poets and thrown political analysts  each add their own take on life in america to the walls on the stalls in the restrooms of america. you will get things from one saying the neocons are destroying america we have to stop them, then the next guy will debate this by scratching it out and saying  it is the fascist obama that is doing the damage, then the next guy will say it is the fundy whacked out christians that are the real problem and finally one guy will scratch it all out and say no it's you guys that are the problem with america stop writing on the wall. so every opinion is expressed and many not as politely as i have said them here. gays are bashed and lauded on the same wall. of course every time i see a "gays rule" or "leave the cock suckers alone they are just people" or "so what the queers want to marry, hell let them pay alimony too" i really am impressed by the changing attitudes of my truckin' brethren. i mean when i first started driving i went back into the closet in my work life out of fear. now i am just myself and have actually told other drivers along the way. so let me leave you with one that made me laugh like a 2 year old:

i

em

sofa

king

we

tard

ed

ok you have to say it fast and yes i know NOT politically correct. i never said i was proud of myself for laughing and giggling, i just said i did . so sorry if i truly offend.

Ugh f'ing east coast rain! Should have taken another day off!

Common terms in my life

so i was thinking about what to post today and it hit me that there are like all these things that i say on a regular basis that are either trucking specific or gay specific and people that are not used to one or the other or both dont know what they mean. so i decided to put some down with their definition. ok here goes:
1. bobtail - [truck] driving just the tractor with out a trailer attached.
2. drop and hook - [truck] a load where you switch out trailers. either it is pre-loaded so you bring in an empty and switch for the load or they are not ready to unload yet so you bring in a load and swap out for empty
3. pigtail - [truck] the electrical connection between tractor and trailer (called this because it is coiled)
4. slip seat - [truck] a tractor that is shared among many drivers (not me i have an assigned tractor only i drive it and dont drive any others f*%# slip seating lol)
5. dm - [truck] driver manager used to be called dispatcher, my person that connects me to the company, btw i have the best dm in the world if i need something she makes it happen, i think in  the 3 yrs ive had her ive been late for hometime like maybe twice. kelly you rock!
6. hometime - [truck] my days off. i sometimes have time off in between hometimes but this is the main time off when i get multi days just to relax etc. standard is 7 days out 1 day off with a min of 14 days out
7. lumper - [truck] person hired to unload trailer
8. pta - [truck] projected time of availability  time when i think i will be ready for my next load and the hours ill have to run at that time
9. log book - [truck] document that states when i am off duty/sleeper berth/driving/on duty for every 15 minutes of the day i must be one of the 4 options and i must log it and show which i was
10. hours - [truck] i live by a log book (see 9) when referring to hours this means of the 10 i can drive in any given 14 hour period without a break how many i have left
11. top - [gay] usually but not always the person that is dominate in bed i.e. inserting
12. bottom - [gay] the other person
13. queen - [gay] generally references a guy that dresses as a women to perform on stage but can reference a general bitchy attitude of a generally more feminine person. this should not be confused with transvestites nor transgenders
14. butch - [gay] a very masc person male or female (side note just because someone is butch does not automatically make them a top)
15. nelly - [gay] a feminine male (again this does not mean they are a bottom)
16. chaser - [gay/straight] a person (generally skinny) who loves, is attracted to larger people
17. live load - [truck] a load that is loaded/unloaded at a dock while your tractor is still attached to trailer.
18. rdo - [truck] remaining days out. of your previously stated commitment (min 14 days) how many you have left before you are to be on your hometime.
19. lot lizard - [truck] a prostitute (generally female not sure what the male version is called) that hangs out in a truck stop or rest area, generally uses cb to talk up business, but will go truck to truck knocking, especially the party row
20. party row - [truck] the back row(s) in a truck stop generally less well lit and out of the way of prying eyes

ok that is all i can think of right now if i think of any more i'll post them another time.

Just one of those days

so i am having one of those days, this morning i pulled up to a major grocery store distribution centre and they had ARMED security at the gate. i mean really?! armed security? what did the apocalypse happen and i was not paying attention? oh well i guess those tomatoes are feisty. oh well just one of those days. well im tired so im gonna head to bed so i'll tell you more later. 

it was a bright clear day....

so as the title suggests one sunny, not a cloud in the sky day i found myself at another one of my companies terminals. i think my truck was in the shop for a b-service (oil change/lube) and there was a group of us shootin the shit and smokin outside. well the terminal had recently gone through a remodel and there was a giant hole in the ground were the old fuel tank used to be. can you see where this is going? yes it really happened. so we are sitting there smoking when around the corner this guy comes in his bobtail (truck no trailer), now i can not stress enough it was a bright , clear day, anyway i guess he was in another world or something because sure enough he put that whole tractor right in that f'ing hole. it even had cones and tape around it! how this guy did not see the hole is beyond me, needless to say any pigmentation in this fellows skin (side note he was like west indian or something very tan fellow) was GONE. he was whiter than the background of this blog. hell it took us like 20 minutes to convince him to let go of the steering wheel and roll down the window. we finally got him out, but this is clearly a lesson in looking around and getting the big picture.  well another one tomorrow take care and keep it rubber side to the road.

But it only sparked a little!

as promised the third and best story of that lay over at the terminal. ok so we were sitting there in the lounge and just passin the time talkin. this one little fella asks about proper chaining of tires and asks if they snap often. well all of a sudden the door swung open and a very pissed off shop foreman came in and shouted who has truck number such and such. well that little fella says that it was his, well the foreman goes over to him and says ok so you told us you needed a new mud flap, and i still don't understand how the hell you managed to put the damn chains on backwards, but what about the f'ing fuel tank? to which the driver replies, fuel tank? whats wrong with the fuel tank? i just filled up on the other side of the pass. well this threw the foreman into anaphylactic fits. he said, wait you JUST fueled? yeah. oh dear god weren't you looking in your mirrors? well yeah. didn't you notice anything odd? well yeah there were some sparks when the chains went. ok and the rest of the way here? well it was only sparking a little bit. dumb ass you were dragging your right side fuel tank. its damn near bone dry, you are lucky you didn't cause a major problem!

yeah so not only did the guy put the chains, cam side in, and they busted and ripped off a mud flap but they also broke a strap on the fuel tank. he dragged it in, rubbed a hole in it and leaked fuel all while sparking "a little bit". lol some people just make you want to scream.

well more next time if you have any question etc feel free to ask.

Some people are just crazy

ok so there is a saying among drivers, what is the difference between a fairy tale and a trucker's story? well one starts out "once upon a time...." and the other starts "you'll never believe this shit, but...." i start out by telling you this for the simple fact that some of these stories you are gonna read and say, "ya right i call bs", but i'm telling you these things did happen.

for example i was at one of my companies terminals out in the western states during the winter and three great stories happened:

1. i was stuck at the terminal because there was a problem with the truck. now at the time i was driving a kenworth w900 long nose tractor with a newly designed cat engine. well the shop was having a hard time figuring out what was wrong, mainly because the mechanics were all students qualifying for school credit. when the shop foreman was finally back on duty they said to him they needed to take apart the engine, fortunately the foreman said lets step back and start at the beginning so have you checked the fuel system how are the filters? turns out frozen. got bad fuel (fuel with water in it) at my last fuel stop and the filters froze in the cold weather. all of like $3 worth of parts was the only prob and they wanted to rip my truck apart.

2. there was a mentor and his student at the terminal. i talked with them for awhile then  they got a load going about 1000 miles away so they got  their stuff around and went to leave the yard. the student was driving off the yard and the mentor was riding shotgun. well back then there were these huge boulders marking the edge of the drive to prevent drivers from running over the grass, well as the mentor later told it he noticed the drift of the tractor and said you need to straighten up you're gonna hit the boulder on the right, well as we witnessed the student did not correct in time and indeed hit the boulder on the right. now this is where the story enters omg time, so the company arranges for the mentor and student to get a loaner truck to do the load and come back while the other truck is repaired. so we are talking and the loaner is ready so they head off, i continue to talk with other people till it gets late so i head off to bed. the next morning i head into the terminal and that mentor is sitting in the drivers lounge. now i know that teams can run fast but i was like there is no way you ran down to your stop and back in such a short period. he said nope someone else is finishing that load, my student got over to that big mountain pass and we were climbing up it i guess he got lazy or something because next thing i knew he was putting the nose of the loaner truck into the rear end of another companies trailer. this kid had screwed up 2 trucks in less than 12 hrs.

the last one from this trip ill tell you later. i had a long day today and need some sleep.

say a prayer

Ryan's Life - tyler's big brother

ty's blog  - hurt in an accident now in med induced coma

ty writes a blog i kinda follow i mostly read his brother's but his is kinda neat please say a prayer and send good thoughts their way thnx

My Loves and Losses

i came out to myself and the world when i was 18. in the 17 years between then and now i have had 4 major relationships. 3 were men and one was a woman, yes i know lost my gold star gay status lol. so my first relationship was a guy in the seminary which did not last all that long.  the reason it is a major relationship is it was my first. he brought me into the world of sex and i must say i loved it. the next major relationship is technically the second, third and fifth. yeah i went with him 3 times with either someone else or significant time in between. he is a good person the relationships were always messed up though. then there was the girl. i feel victim to the "if you pray hard enough it will go away" thing. yeah my catholicism reared its ugly head  and i thought, ok i can beat this. well after some time we started having guys in bed with us then i turned to pros in secret and well needless to say i'm gay no doubt about it. btw, i am still a technical straight virgin, i never had actual sex with her, tried never worked. i would lose my erection before anything could happen, like i said i'm so gay. then there was the guy that devastated me. we were together for a very long time, years and one day without saying a word he left. i was crushed and not real good for a couple months, oh and btw this was earlier this year.

 by the way i will be telling these stories with more detail at some later time, any specific questions just ask.

now my baby has come into my life. omg he is incredible, sexy, smart, cute, clever, a chaser (chubby lover lol) and talented. my francis is just the most amazing guy anyone could want to know. oh did i mention he is incredibly romantic as well? he so is. well more on him later.

so this is my love life in a nut shell. not very exciting i know but such is life, lol. well i'll gab on more later, who knows what about but it will be interesting im sure.

Just a quick test. It says i can text posts so i'm seeing if i really can.

ok lets start this thing

well i guess the best place to start is the beginning, i was born in 1974 in a country that no longer exists. my father was in the air force stationed in balboa, panama canal zone. i was raised in louisiana and dont have any memories except for there so it is home to me. i come from an irish catholic family and went to catholic school from 2nd grade to my first year of college. i went to seminary and had my first boy friend there. i left seminary because i realized i could not live my life as a hypocrite. i wandered for several years in jobs etc until i found trucking in 1997. i drove several years then had a wreck in 2000 and swore id never drive again. then after being homeless in los angeles in 2003 i returned to trucking. i have been with the same company ever since. i love the open road. it is a great adventure almost every day. it can get lonely at times as well as mind numbingly boring, but i would not trade it in for any other career. so this is a brief run down, feel free to ask questions. i guess next time ill run down my love life or maybe give you some truely crazy stories from the road. maybe ill just babble on about how im feeling who knows. talk to you soon