Most Commented Family Blogs (545)

Finding a nice used vehicle for the twins. Being a car guy, can inspect and purchase right. Girls seem to love car. Has one of those AUX inputs---what the hell is that?!?! In proudly describing it to their mom, she hit me with a litany of reasonable negative cautionary statements, and I didn't react well. Pride comes before the fall, as tha Bard said. Girls gently mentioned that I could have been more diplomatic with mom. Apologized fortwith. Tail tucked firmly between legs. The art is long. But am slowly learning, with a little help from my friends.

My bro, sis, Mother and me had planned to go see my son's new house in Orlando, 100 mile trip before Hurricane Dorian scared us into cancellation. My son kept pushing me to come even saying we don't have to worry until Tuesday. I declined saying that we will still get a storm and no one wants to drive in a storm. He was not supposed to cook for us.

Late this afternoon my son texts me pictures of a food layout that represented Labor Day, ribs, salmon and so much more. I thought Italians over cook but the Chinese do too so there is always way too much food. Anyways my son sends me the pics to show what we are missing out on. 20 minutes later his wife sends me a pic of my son and his friend both out cold on the sofa with their mouths hanging open snoring. The food coma made me laugh. I just want to hug my daughter-i-L.

Now I get to tease my son that I'm glad I didn't drive a 100 miles to watch him sleep.

Last month my nephew (living 10 miles away) accepted a job in California. He scooted out as the position required him to start immediately. Small problem: Wife and 2 young children in Florida. The icing on that cake is my niece is in the finals of graduation. Read: dissertation.

A few weeks ago, my wife volunteered to help pack and for a few days each week she filled boxes, sealed them with tape and stacked them in the garage.
They arranged a storage container (with a roll-up door) from a company called PODS that was 16 feet long that now sits in the driveway. My nephew flew back to Florida one weekend and worked 2 days packing as much as possible before he had to fly back... this time with his wife, 2 young children and 2 cats. Personally, I would have left the cats behind, especially the moody one who will scratch you in a heartbeat simply because he knows he can.

With no developed plans, they left 2 cars (with keys under the tires) a rented house (with key under the doormat) and less than 2 weeks before the lease expires and they have to be out!

In desperation, I was called (by my brother) as the 'clock was ticking' and he realized their plans were about to fail.

Cars
The Avalon was older and in need of repair. I pushed the issue to unload it. A friend dropped me off Friday and I drove it to a parking lot near my warehouse to buy time for a future decision.
They are keeping the Camry and will pay a car carrier to transport it to California.

Furniture
About 80% made it to the container, with the exception of a king size 12" thick memory foam mattress. Well, duh, while that should have been loaded in the front with the bed frame, my niece wouldn't have a bed to sleep in. No win.

Electronics
We boxed up 4 TV's, laserjet printer, DVD player and a few miscellaneous items.

My nephew pleaded for the mattress, so we unloaded a bunch of boxes to make room and schlepped the mattress from the 2nd floor out to the container, pushed it up over the boxes and wedged 2 TV's over that!

What goes, what stays
Infant swing, a gift from his sister a last minute must and some baby cradles.
We took apart all those items and shoved them inside.
Literally, we're out of room and have more boxes and baskets to pack.
I opened a few brief cases already in the container... EMPTY (insert a slight episode of Tourette's) but we've got a plan! I was able to repack some boxes into those empty cases. Pillows and bedding that wasn't going to make the trip got squeezed in between every gap we could find.

By then, it was dark, windy raining and the PODS truck was a few hours late for the pickup. I guess he knew we were in 'Coolie mode' all afternoon, so it worked out best.

With relief we did our best, I padlocked the container, closed the garage and we headed back to the condo for dinner.

Next week, my nephew has to arrange for some charitable agency to pick up the rest of the furniture as donation that will require my presence and I'll do a walk-thru with the landlord to get the approval that everything is clean, because they are going to California!

I feel gravely ill. Started vomiting up black stuff and huge pain in back and side and abdomen where the other half literally kicked the living hell out of me while I was on the ground on the 2nd. I. At my 2nd of 3 stops and I already called the company and let them know to get another driver to finish the load. I'm going to be going by ambulance to the emergency room.

Depression sucks. I'm doing my best to keep myself positive and out of trouble and away from the bad things in life. Like boredom. I don't like those Damned phone app games that people spend hours and hours on ignoring what the universe has set before them. And yes, I do know it's contradictory to be typing this on my phone so I can see the ironic dilemma I am in. But I would much rather be typing this than draining my mind binge watching TV or playing games. I was approached this morning by another driver that had some serious issues going on with the company he drove for and his personal life. I helped him with some advice on how to get to a better place in his heart, being completely honest with him that I have my own issues. He started bawling his heart out because of how heavy it weighed on his soul. He thanked me a bunch of times and I have a feeling he'll be ok. But it just brought me back to my own problems and I do believe that I don't want to deal with mine because I have been trying. I keep feeding the pigeons that are waddling around my truck and it keeps pissing off the trucks around me, but too bad. God gave me those birds in my life temporarily to feed and watch and wonder at. I'm upset because I found multiple grey hairs in my chin whiskers and at my temples. I'm barely in my mid 30s and having white and grey hairs isn't supposed to be happening. And yes I do believe each one is a lesson learned, but did I really need to get a reminder to each one? I wish my phone didn't glitch. I had the most beautiful words typed after that question and then it glitched and deleted it all. I wish I could just write it all down in one shot and get it all off my heart and mind. I thank you all for allowing me to be able to just get it out. I've noticed that once the scam profiles realized I actually wanted something real that they stopped wanting to send me to their sites. Thank you. The real people on here, I truly appreciate your comments and suggestions and I know it seems like I ignore certain things, and I am sorry because I'm not. I just get busy with work and driving that I don't have much time to respond to it all. I have been trying my best to alleviate some of the boredom with walking around or counting stars to just sitting there and drawing little scenes in a tiny notebook I keep in my shirt pocket. I have been thinking alot about the fact that for 12 years the game she dangled of a possibility of her getting a tubal reversal and us having children together is a good thing it didn't happen. I'm still dealing with the pain of her getting having an ectopic pregnancy that ended in miscarriage and the horrible things said to me because of it. I'll put it this way, what happened happened. God's will be done. May the unborn child be at peace in heaven. I truly hurt because of it and I wish something other than that being told to me was God's way of saying I'm not worth a damn and all the other harsh things said to me over it over the years never happened. I wish that it wasn't the knife in my heart every time because you saw it as a game and I saw it as a loss of a life not met. I wish that it wasn't dangled in front of me thinking that the possibility was what kept me around. I do wish for children of my bloodline. But that didn't mean I didn't have enough love in NY heart to raise yours too. Money was never an issue. It was the selfishness and childishness. That was. I always showed that from the very first day. I always protected them from the harsh things said. Ones just short of adulthood by a few months and the other has just a couple more years and he will be a young man who has issues. I told you they always come before I do because a relationship is never worth a child's expense. Ever. I held those words true even before we said our vows. I just wish I could tell the whole story. From beginning to end. I'm going to just smoke a cigar and watch the smoke disappear into the sky.

Yesterday, I got off my shift after being on the clock for 22 hours dealing with the load I was given. I had waited up for 7 hours expecting the driver the day before on the driver who couldn't do his own job.

When he pulled up in the truck stop I was in, he parked in the middle of the aisle and blocked everyone's way around him just so he could come to my truck and start yapping about how much he despises a whole slew of other drivers and spouting off about what he thinks about them.

For an entire 30 minutes he complained about it. The entire time I kept getting dirty looks from drivers because he was blocking traffic. I finally got sick of it and told him if all he wants is to talk then park the trailer in an actual spot and I'll be more than happy to jabber on about what's going on in his mind.

He looked around and tried telling me there were no spots and this that and the other. I looked in my mirror and told him there's 12 spots on the row behind me and to park it or drive it but I don't have any time for ignorance. The look of hurt he gave me was just pathetic.

I realized that when he started walking to his truck that, he doesn't know how to back a trailer in uncomfortable places. He took off and I waited another 30 minutes to go find him, not parked, but sitting in the middle of the back row blocking everyone from parking their trucks and trailers because how dare anyone want to rest before he does. I just walked up to him and said I'll be back in a few. He started gobbling on about how much he's going to knock out all these drivers in the back lot. I looked around and looked back at this guy and said good luck.

I go all the way to the store to deal with personal issues and buy some drinks to have for the trip. I go back to where he was and he was parked. I will give him that. He starts this whole jabbering about degrading the rest of the world and how he's such a great driver, and let's it slip quite a few times about his hitting things with his truck and for being a driver for a whole three years at this company and that he's the greatest thing ever.

I'm still waiting on him to get around to what needs to be addressed and finally tell him I need the paperwork and to know what time it's supposed to be at the warehouse. He hands me the paperwork and I see it's a frozen meat load and on the paperwork it specifically states in clear bolded writing that it's a 4 am delivery and there's a 1000 dollar fine for late delivery.

He tries going on about politics now and I tell him to get in his truck and go get his empty trailer and go to bed. He gets all upity, but does so. I back up to the loaded trailer and almost instantly I'm approached by several driver's whom he started a fight with.

Apparently he hit a few vehicles with his truck and they couldn't get his truck number. So I decided to do the only thing I could think of. Tell the truth. I let them know I've dealt with his inability to do his job on a number of occasions when I was last working for this company. And I wrote down his info and gave it to each driver who said he hit their equipment. Well one driver started telling me about alot of very prejudiced things said by this guy and I found myself apologizing for the incompetence of him.

I hook my truck to the trailer and do my safety checks and looked at the scratches all over an almost brand new trailer and take pictures and send them to the companies breakdown Dept because I refuse to pay for damages that didn't come from me.

I get going down the highway and get to where I need to be 500 miles down the road with minutes to spare because I did a few things to make up the time that I am not proud of, but I did what needed to be done so I wouldn't be stuck with his late fee.

I absolutely one hundred percent, believe that when I get to my final destination in life, I'll finally be late. But until then, I'm sorry for the world's best attempts to slow me down. And hurt me. Peace to all

So, here it is. I have about an hour before I have to fight with the receiver at this facility to get my trailer unloaded.. When I was about 14 my sister already ran away from home the year before and filed for emancipation from my mom who pretty much checked out of being a parent at that point because it was far too stressful fighting for a daughter and trying to raise a son on her own all the while losing the house she paid for off the sweat of her work, to her brother who was just trying to get a free house. I was kicked into the world and already had been living rough for the entire year before. I always held a grudge against everybody involved in all of that because at the end of the day every single day I was alone. Alone in every struggle there was. Whether it be finding a meal, a warm place to sleep, comfort from the injustices that kept tormenting a child living on the street. I started working a man's job at 13. I have always worked since. Whether or not I had shelter or clean clothes or even a warm meal, I always worked. From general labor to supervising machinists to sweeping and mopping out bars to working at the newspaper which I truly feel was the start of being career minded, to any and every odd job I could pick up until the latest career of driving a truck for the past twelve years. My life has always been filled with work. There have been times when I was in between jobs but even then I kept myself busy doing for others. But that's not the point. The struggles and hunger aren't the point. No matter what had happened before now isn't anything more than a test of my life and to be honest, in my personal opinion, I failed miserably. But the reason I have that opinion of myself is I have always, no matter what, been able to overcome all of it and move forward. My dream from the bitter beginning of the start of my life's true struggles was to carve a swath of peace out of the troubling times before me and be able to make a place that I can have a peaceful and happy life with a wife who would love me for me and stand by me through the good times and the bad times and all times in between. A wife who is strong enough to face the troubles without flinching or running from the problems. But mostly strong enough to be able to let me know when I am wrong and hold me accountable for my wrongs. But one who is gentle enough to admit when she is wrong and kind enough to accept my hand to not pull her up but allow me to lift her up. I wanted a family full of little ones. So so many that I would have to build such a magnificent home and there would be nothing but love that would radiate from that home because the foundation wouldn't be of bedrock, but of love and peace and harmony. I would have land as far as the eye can see full of grassy Meadows and cattle and goats and chickens and ducks and geese and dogs and cats and every creature in between. I would be able to live off of that in and of itself, able to support the neighbors and strangers around me so that they wouldn't have the chance to feel the pain of hunger or loneliness for lack of friends because as long as I lived they would always have a friend and a meal. If needed they would always have a home to come home to even if theirs ceased to exist. I always dreamt of waking to the still of the morning and welcoming the morning sun and feeling the warmth upon my face and knowing that as long as I put myself into my labors that nobody can take it away. That as long as I love with all of my heart there would be no pain to wish away. That as long as I have a breath of fresh air and a big dreams that seems out of reach to all but my heart, that at least if I did fall, I will have accomplished maybe not everything I wished for but enough to not be told I have accomplished nothing. I wished for people to get along and not feel anger towards one another, so that they can at least be civil and true to their words. But, I know, it's very selfish of me to dream like this. Srry

Just thinking….

remembering the day I explained death to my son, when he was 3 years old. That was the day we were in my favorite Forest, connecting with our Earth mother and Creator. We walked around listening to the sounds of insects and animals around us, smiling at sprouting tree’s, and hugging a few big one’s along the way. I think it was after we both relieved ourselves at the root of some trees, and offered mother some old veggies that we came across the fallen tree. She was massive, and he was curious. The tree had been there for a while, as it was partially broken down already. I told my son “this tree is sleeping with Earth mother, see?” I reached down and grabbed some of the bits of disintegrated wood, allowing him to watch it fall loosely from my hands ( I probably should have asked the tree permission to do this; darn it, I wasn’t thinking to ask at the time ). After he watched me scatter the particles, I told him: “When we sleep with Earth mother, we don’t wake back up, and after a while of sleeping with her, we go back to her body and become part of her again, just like this tree. This is what Nanna Jackie and your hamster Angus look like right now, cuz they’re sleeping with mother Earth too”. To which, his eyes widened and he let out “Oooooh!” And from the way he said it, I could tell, even at age 3, he understood what I was telling him.

Mom & Dad had their 64th anniversary yesterday. Baby sister talked the care center into letting Mom and her offsprings to come see him through the glass. Lots of signs were made saying things like WE LOVE YOU, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, PLEASE EAT, et al.

There was double doors, we could go through one door into a little cubicle about 4X8 which we crowded into with are faces pressed up on the glass doors into the care center where they wheeled my Dad to on the other side. Every single one inside and out had masks on. The most fun was watching Mom say and use her hands to show Dad over and over how much she loved him. At one point we had a countdown and all screamed at once I LOVE YOU to Daddy.

I kind of felt we gave him a flash mob of love. For my MOM it was a joyous joyous day in the midst of this crazy virus. We know the care center has covid cases so we all are quaranteening ourselves for awhile, keeping fingers crossed to.