Missing My Husband!

After being away from Chris for 10 days while his truck was broke down I got to spend about 1 glorious week with him before they sent him off to Canada.

He headed out and I headed home to see family.  Getting to see family is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but I still miss my husband.  I spent the first night in a motel because I always need at least one night to feel sorry for myself and get out of my separation depression.  I spent a couple of days in Amarillo with my daughter which is always a wonderful time.  We went and got our Mani/Pedi's and did a little shopping.  I also finally had a chance to have lunch with one of my closest friends and do some much needed catching up. 

Then it was off to Dalhart to see Mom and Dad and work on driving them crazy.  OK, pretty easy to do, but I still love doing it.  I have the most loving parents any child could ever dream to have.  I am so glad they put up with me and all my quirks.  While I was there I got a text from one of my and Chris' friends.  He had broke down in Dalhart.  Nice coincidence that he happened to break down in the town where I was!  I went and visited with him while they were deciding what to do with his truck and then took him over to my parents for awhile before taking him to his motel.  They got his truck running and he left the next morning to go meet up with Chris. (Lucky) 

I went to Ulysses on Sunday to see Chris' grand kids.  Of course, I saw his kids too, but I went for the grand kids.  Chris has such a terrific family and I really love how they have accepted me into their lives.  Poor Eric has inherited his fathers dorkiness, which always makes me laugh.  The grand kids are all growing up so fast.  I wish we could see them more often and really wish Chris could have been with me to visit them.  Eric and Evan were out riding dirt bikes and Eric tried to get me to ride with him but there was no way that was happening.  I break easily and mend slowly!  Amanda is barely starting to show with Chris' latest grandchild, a boy this time.  Her second child and Chris' 5th grandchild.  I am so excited about being there when this one makes his appearance into the world in January. Chelsea constantly amazes me with all she does.  She is such a terrific wife and mother. 

I made it back to Dalhart on Sunday night and headed back to Amarillo on Monday morning.  Two of my tires that I had bought a couple of months ago had been recalled.  I had to get new ones and then needed to get my oil changed and pickup inspected.  I am now ready for our next project.  I had lunch with my daughter and we did a little running around. 

Next I headed off to see my sister and nephew in Sunray.  I ended up driving through a terrible thunderstorm to get there.  Traffic was only traveling about 35 mph most of the way because it was so bad.  Winds were up to about 40 mph and rain was coming down so hard you couldn't see the road.  I later learned that Amarillo didn't get any rain and that although Dalhart got the rain, they didn't get the wind.  I guess I was one of the lucky ones that got both.  I did get to have a good visit with my sister and nephew.  I love how she painted her house.  They did an excellent job.  I made it back to Dalhart just in time for supper for which my mother had cooked one of my favorite meals. 

Now I am just waiting to see if my husband is ever going to get to leave Canada.  He has had the worst luck up there.  He has to take other drivers loads in for them because they don't have passports.  On his first load he got a ticket for almost $3,000.  (No, that isn't a typo.)  Apparently the company that loaded the trailer didn't put the axles where they were supposed to be and the driver that had the load didn't move them and Chris didn't know they were supposed to be moved.  So Chris is the one that got stuck with the ticket.  Really doesn't seem fair to me.  Now that Chris is loaded with a load that he is supposed to bring back to Texas, he found out after driving 4 hours to get to the truck stop and weigh it, that it is overweight.  He has to drive back and get some of the material off. 

I am feeling so bad for him.  He hasn't been out of the truck since Easter.  He request a vacation a couple of weeks ago but didn't get it.  He requested home time for when he came back from Canada but doesn't look like he is going to get that either.  He has been told that he has to be in Pennsylvania by the 21st.  Not sure how he is going to make that happen if he isn't going to be able to be back to Texas before the 18th to get the blade trailer. 

We are supposed to be taking some blades from Pennsylvania to Minnesota.  Not sure how many or with whom we will be running yet.  Just hope Chris makes it back in time.

Mostly just wish Chris makes it back safe into my waiting arms.  I miss you babe!

Work or Vacation???

We spent five glorious days in Galveston.  Technically Chris was working.  On Thursday Chris had to Stretch his trailer.  Followed by a wonderful evening with his mom, her husband, and his sister-in-law, who happened to be down visiting her family. 
On Friday Chris actually had to work.  He unloaded 16 wind tower blades off of the train.  Drove about 100 yards and unloaded them.  He was done by around 3:00 so we got to enjoy a relaxing evening. 
Saturday we spent the full day playing tourist.  We went out on a short cruise to see dolphins that were remarkably close to the shore.

                                                   Momma dolphin with her baby.

After watching the dolphins we went to Galveston's aquarium, which was nice but not near as good as the one in San Diego.

                                                                          Aquarium

 

 

Luckily, the only shark we saw was in the aquarium

 

 

                                          The aquarium, rain forest and discovery buildings.

After touring these buildings we went to the "Band on the Sand" concert followed by an awesome firework show.  Which definitely made up for not getting to see any on the 4th of July.

Sunday we had planned on spending the day on the beach but the rain put a delay on that.  We ended up going to the theater on Pier 21 and watched "The Storm".  It was a fantastic documentary on the history of Galveston and the hurricane of 1900 that pretty much wiped out the entire city. Killing over 6,000 people and causing them to raise the city and put a wall around it to keep it from happening again.  After that, we strolled around the historic down town area.  Finally, with the rain gone we headed to the beach. 
Monday Chris finished unloading the blades off of the train and got the dispatch to go on another run. 
I had to take the pickup back to Gainesville.  The plan was for Chris to do this quick run and be back to get me.  Figuring on being separated for 4 days I am now on day five without my man.  His truck broke down.  I think the rear differential went out.  Anyway, we are hoping he will be back here by Wednesday, making it 9 days without him.  It is really hard for me being stuck in the motel without him when I am used to being with him 24/7.  But at least I have a vehicle and can get out and do things.  Not that I have, other than going to the gym, I pretty much just stay at the motel laying around the pool.  Poor Chris has no vehicle and not much of a choice for things to eat.  I miss being with my husband.  Hopefully we will back together soon and can continue on with our honeymoon.

Just another boring week, almost

Another week that we got rained out of work.  It really is getting kind of old.  I know they need the moisture around here but they have had over 10" of rain since the first of the year and we really need at least one week of work!  We did get to work Monday thru Wednesday this week.  The job site got over an inch of rain on Thursday and since it wasn't even completely dry from the week before they called off work for the rest of the week.  We are hoping that we can go to work tomorrow. 

The week before when we were rained out, Chris' dispatcher put him on a local run hauling some general freight to a construction sight.  When he was getting loaded they told him that they also had some long beams to move but our company told them that we didn't have the expandable trailers to haul them with.  Chris called the dispatcher and told him that we should be able to use the blade trailers to haul the beams.  The dispatcher did some checking and found out that we could.  (Still waiting to find out what kind of a finders fee Chris gets for getting that work.)  Because of Chris' brilliant idea we, along with 3 other drivers, got to take beams for them Saturday. 

Wednesday night while we were in Grand Prairie the truck started shaking.  I thought that we were in for a bad storm.  I checked to radar on my phone and there was nothing in the area.  The shaking didn't last long so I just blew it off.  When we were watching the news later I heard about the explosion down in West.  They said that it was felt in south Dallas.  I think that was what we felt and we were 85 miles away!

Thursday night Chris and I were enjoying a nice quiet evening in the drivers break room watching TV.  We were sitting there trying to get caught up on the news and another driver came in and had to give us his view of everything that came on.  It was getting so frustrating.  I don't even know who he was.  I just call him Mr. Rude.  Then Mr. Rude II came in talking on his cell phone the entire time he was in there.  Chris sent me a text telling me he wanted to leave.  We ended up going to redbox and renting a movie.  Chris popped us some popcorn and we snuggled up and watched Red Dawn together.  It was better than watching TV in the break room anyway.

The only other big news is that today is our one year anniversary.  We didn't do anything big to celebrate just spent a nice quiet day together.  We had wanted to go to a dude ranch not far from here but since Chris had to work Saturday and the weather was still a little cool we didn't get to.  It has been a wonderful year and I am looking forward to many more to come. 

The Pipe Project

Since the first of the year we have been on a pipe project hauling pipe in the Dallas area.  Technically from Grand Prairie to around Howe, Tx.  It is about 70 miles each way and we shoot for doing 3 loads every day but mostly we only get two.  Chris originally volunteered for the project because
1.  We wouldn't be traveling into the north where it is still cold and snowing.
2.  It is steady work and the first of the year business is usually slow for us.
3.  We would get weekends off.

All of that is great for Chris.  For me it is incredibly boring.  Thank goodness for my kindle.  I have no idea how many books I have read since January.  I am very grateful for my amazon gift cards that I received for Christmas and have bought a few other books on my own but decided to download the free books after spending too much money on them.  Amazon has a lot of the classics and thought I would try reading them even though in high school I had to read some of them and didn't like them then.  I have read all of Jane Austen, I think, and once I get into the old english have   really enjoyed them.  Still didn't like The Scarlet Letter and am now attempting War and Peace.  I will be glad when blade projects kick off again and I can go back to work.  Although I am extremely grateful that Chris provides for us and that I can stay on the truck with him and not have to go get another job. 

The thing about this pipe project is that if it rains we are off work for at least 2 or 3 days after because where we deliver to gets too muddy to drive down.  I keep hearing that we are in a drought here but there has only been one week since we have been on this job that it hasn't rained at least one day during the week. 

                                                                      Chris' pipe

On the weekends Chris has been working on getting his pilot license.  Which has been a dream of his for a long time and I am glad he is getting the chance to do it.  It sounds like we are going to be hauling pipe until June so hopefully he will get his license before we get through with this project.

Gainesville Parade

We had a surprise when we were watching the news on Friday night.  There was a news item about Gainesville, Texas being the most patriotic city in the United States.  They were having a banquet that night to give out medals of honor.  Saturday morning we went to our usual breakfast place and found out that they were having a parade that morning.  Ok, honestly I am not into parades at all.  Dalhart has an annual one that I used to love but people just don't put effort into the floats anymore so it doesn't impress me anymore, sorry.  It just seems to me like anymore the parades I go to are just a bunch of people riding down the street and throwing candy out. 
We didn't have anything going on so we thought we would go check out the parade.  Number one surprise, no one was throwing out candy.  Yet the kids around us still seemed to like the parade.  It did have the usual bunch of antique cars and alot of motorcycles, but also alot of military vehicles. However, I think mine and Chris' favorite part was that it also had planes flying over.  I took over 200 pictures but here are a few of my favorites. 

And this one just because Chris asked me to take it. 

Catching up! The Mojave Project

Ok, I am a lousy blogger!  I wish I could stay on top of it like my niece Jessica does.  I think she posts a couple time a week. 
Since my last blog we spent a couple of months in San Diego, which is why I didn't blog.  We never had time.  When the project started we were working 4 days a week and having 3 day weekends.  We took total advantage of that and it basically became a working vacation.  In all there were about 13 of us that went down there.  The rest of the escorts were local people that didn't hang out with us.  We went to the San Diego Zoo, of course.  Can't go to San Diego with out doing that!  However, I have to say I was kind of disappointed with it.  I think I prefer Oklahoma City Zoo over it, except for getting to see the pandas. 
We were delivering the blades to Mojave.  We saw this very unusual plant that I wasn't sure if it was a cactus or a tree.  Sure don't have them around southwest Kansas or the Texas panhandle.  Found out it is a Joshua tree and they actually have a whole forest of them.

We befriended a coyote on the job site.  You could tell he was getting used to us being there.  Chris and the other drivers kept feeding it.  (I wonder if he misses us.)

6 out of the 9 trucks on the project

 

The highlight of the trip was getting to go to Sea World.  I had been to the one in San Antonio a couple of times and was pretty sure Chris would enjoy it.  To start off we went to see Shamu and of course I wanted Chris to get the full effect of the show so we sat in the splash zone.  Now, I have sat in the splash zone before but never as close as we got this time.  We were in the third row right beside the landing that shamu gets up on.  So technically I wouldn't call it a splash zone, more of a SOAK zone!  We were thoroughly soaked!  It was a good thing that it was a warm day and we dried out fairly quickly.  Chris did love it.  Everyone else from our group were chickens and sat up much higher.  Chris wanted to swim with the dolphins and even though it was a little pricey I decided to spring for it and we both got to do it.  We both loved it!  I was a little nervous at first, not knowing exactly what to expect but it was definitely worth the money!  Ok, maybe not the part where the instructor didn't tell the men to be careful about their positioning and Chris got racked by the dolphin! 

 

                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                            

                                                                            

I really hated to see that project come to an end! I was a real shock when we headed back to Texas in mid November to find out that it wasn't summer any more.  The weather was so beautiful while we were there.