Jo Koy Rocked It!

John, the boys, and I went to the Orlando Comedy Improv last night and watched Joy Koy. We know of him from watching Chelsea Lately. He far exceeded our expectations. He is seriously funny!

Loved his jokes about "parent sex" vs "couples sex". His routine is a bit on the vulgar side, but that doesn't bother any of us. If it did, we probably wouldn't be able to be truck drivers!

I was the designated driver for the night. After the show, we hit up the Fat Fish Blue Bar and then Hooters. Hooters was quite disappointing. Pretty empty and the Hooters girls were kind of lacking in the looks dept. Normally I wouldn't be so judgmental, but isn't that kind of the draw for Hooters?

Paper Work Never Ends

I've spent all day trying to catch up on paper work and trucking related stuff. I'm still not done, but I put a good dent in it. The rules and regulations for trucking are unbelievable. I got the mail yesterday and there was a piece of mail telling us about a new requirement for cdl holders regarding self reporting for our medical cards. Not exactly sure what that's all about, but I followed the instructions and got it taken care of.

John went out to put the new visor clip on the truck and found out that International sold us the passenger side clip instead of the drivers side. Not surprised. Even though they double checked it, they still got it wrong. Guess we'll have to go back there tomorrow and see if they have the correct one.

I'm getting my hair cut and highlighted tomorrow and then tomorrow night me, John and our two sons are going to the Improv in Orlando to see Jo Koy. We're pretty excited about it. We see him quite a bit on the Chelsea Lately show and he's always funny. We've never been to the Improv, so not sure what to expect, but I know it'll be a good time!

The weather today was absolutely perfect! Not that I did anything outside, but where I sit and do paperwork I'm surrounded by windows and I had them all open with the breeze blowing in. It was in the 80's today and is supposed to be the rest of the week. I love Florida weather in the winter time!

The boys got their Vegas trip booked for March and we agreed to babysit their dog, so we will have to be home in March for that. I guess I'll go ahead and do our taxes then. With all this fiscal cliff talk, I'm dreading that. Don't know what to expect.

Went to the endocrinologist yesterday and got great news. My blood work was so good that they didn't put me on synthroid. At least not yet. I have to go back and have it done again in 8 weeks and see how that goes.

A Productive Day at Home

I got the house completely and thoroughly cleaned today. Mom and Dad are coming tomorrow to stay for a few days. While cleaning, I found some old pieces of jewelry that I haven't worn in years. I took them to a jewelry store and they ended up paying me $240 for them. I was shocked. I doubt if I paid that much for them new. Gold must be really high right now.

Tomorrow I am going back to have a follow up visit with the lady who does the permanent eyeliner. Cant wait to get it done!

Also today, I am trying out monovision with contacts. So far I think I like it. Only thing is, I'll have to get some glasses made for driving because it would be too much eye strain without them. It's nice to be able to read without putting on reading glasses.

That's about it, feeling really good still since the thyroid surgery. Wish I would've had it done sooner now!

Full of Energy Today

It's been 5 days since I had my left half of my thyroid removed and today is the first day that I have felt really good since. I woke up today full of energy and spent the whole day cleaning. I hauled out 8 garbage bags of stuff. Went through every cabinet, closet and drawer and pitched anything that didn't seem necessary. Why do we save some of the things we save? Empty boxes, clothes we haven't worn in years, kitchen utensils that I don't even know how to use....

 Yesterday, I went to a walk in clinic and found out I have a middle ear infection. Got a prescription for amoxicillin and another for some kind of steroids. Must be doing the job because I feel awesome now. Still can't hear 100% out of my left ear, but much improved over how it was. The whole weekend it felt like the left half of my head was stuffed with cotton.

 Tomorrow, I will need to go get a blood test done and then Monday I will follow up with the surgeon and on Tuesday I will see the endocrinologist who will have the results of the blood work from tomorrow and then he can decide what dosage of medicine to put me on. Hopefully he gets it right because I am not looking forward to any side effects from too much or not enough synthroid.

 I don't have much experience with drugs of any kind since I hate taking anything, but I do have a prescription for vicodin that they sent me home with. The best benefit I found from it so far is yesterday I took it and on the way home from the Dr. we stopped at Walmart to stock up on some groceries and other household items and by the time we got there, the drugs had kicked in and I was able to shop without being in misery the whole time. I absolutely hate shopping at Walmart and wish I was rich enough to never have to go there again. But since I'm not rich, yet anyway, I still go to Walmart. Anyway, for once, thanks to the effects of the vicodin, I was able to shop and still be happy.

 I plan on more cleaning and organizing tomorrow and then Friday, Mom and Dad will be coming to spend a few days. My Christmas gift to them this year is taking them, us and our two boys to see the Blue Man Group at Universal. Every year I take them somewhere different. Last year we went to the Polynesian Luau at Sea World and the year before that we went to Cirque De Soleil at Disney. All have been wonderful. I love going to the parks just to walk around, they are always so beautiful and have such a wonderful atmosphere. Always feels like you're on vacation when you're there.

Recovery Time

Taken about 4 hours after surgery

I had my surgery on Thursday. Luckily it went well and they only had to remove the left half of my thyroid. I stayed one night in the hospital and have been at home recovering since then. The surgeon did a great job and the cut is very small.


 The only problem I am having is with my left ear. I don't think it's related to the surgery. It's like it has water in it, but I dont think it does. I just can't hear out of it and it pops and cracks a lot. I finally broke down and made a Dr. appt. for this afternoon to have it looked at. I can't stand the feeling of having half my head feel like it's stuffed with cotton!

Other than that, Christmas was nice. Time at home has been nice. New Years Eve is tonight. Obviously, we have no plans for that. Just can't wait to get back to feeling 100% again. I am actually already starting to miss being out on the road. Although after hearing the weather reports, I am glad I'm home in Florida. Don't look forward to driving through all that snow.

Getting a Thyroidectomy for Christmas

First off, I need to catch up where we have been since my last post. I am terrible about consistently blogging on a regular basis, and I've gotten really behind. Last time I blogged, we were on a load that picked up in Indian Head, Maryland and was delivering in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

After that, it went like this: Tooele, Ut to Barksdale AFB, La
Conway, Ar to Houston, Tx
Del Rio, Tx to Kansas City, Ks
Kansas City, Mo to Forest Park, Ga
Home for a couple of weeks (October 13 to October 26)
Ocala, Fl to Batesville, Ms
Ft. Worth, Tx to Travis AFB, Ca
Madera, Ca to Bridgeview, Il
Grand Rapids, Mi to Brooklyn Park, Mn St. Cloud, Mn to Kansas City, Mo
Kansas City, Mo to Ypsilanti, Mi
Holland, Mi to Canton, Ms then deadheaded home for a LONG Thanksgiving break.

Inside a cave in Kansas City. This is where we delivered.

The coolest thing that happened during those loads was the delivery to Kansas City, Ks. We weren't told ahead of time what kind of locaton we were delivering to. A lot of times I will look at the pickup and delivery addresses on Google Earth when the load offer first comes in just to get an idea of what to expect. This time when I looked at the delivery address it brought u what looked like an empty field area. I wasn't too concerned about it because sometimes places are built after the Google image was taken so it won't show up on the map and I assumed that was probably the case this time.

 We arrived at the location that our gps said was where we should be for the address that we had input and all we saw were cave entrances. I suddenly remembered reading stories that other truckers had posted about delivering inside a cave and it clicked that that was what we were just about to do! It was actually pretty cool. A little unnerving at first to realize that you have to drive your truck inside a cave and not knowing what to expect when you get inside, but they give you a good map and it's not bad at all. It was pretty amazing. According to the security guard there at Subtropolis, as it is called, there is a little over 4 square miles of businesses underground in the caves. There was a variety of businesses that we saw while in there. We delivered to a place that was responsible for distributing sales ads. The ones we brought were for the upcoming Black Friday sales.

A dock inside the cave

Other than that, from what I can remember, everything was pretty routine. We saw our first snow of the year on our trip to Minnesota. One night the temps got down to 14 degrees! I guess winter is coming. Sometimes being in Florida, you tend to forget about things like that.

We've now been at home for about 2 1/2 weeks and it's been beautiful weather. I am sure we are in for a shock to the system when we get back up North.

While home this time, I saw my endocrinologist and got the results of my latest blood work and ultrasound. The ultrasound showed that my thyroid nodules have doubled in size over the last six months, so it is now time to have my thyroid removed. The surgeon is going to remove the left half and if the right half is okay, it will stay, but if it shows problems when he gets in there, it will come out also. Either way, after the surgery, I will be on thyroid medication for the rest of my life which I am not happy about. I am the type of person who hates to take any kind of medication unless I absolutely have to. I take nothing now, no vitamins, no calcium, and ony tylenol when I can't stand the headache pain anymore. Guess those days are over.

The best thing that happened during our time at home this time, other than getting to spend time with our family, was getting permanent eyeliner!! My friend in Indiana had it done and loved it so I got the courage to go in and get it. I love it, and wish I had done it years ago. Which I couldn't have, since I didn't even know you could get it. Driving a truck as a team means not being able to shower every day. While I can live with that, I still want to look decent and eyeliner is something I like to use everyday. Problem solved now!

On a Good Roll for a Change

After we delivered in Ft. Campbell Ky, we drove to Richmond, Ky to pick up our next load. We didn't have to pick up till the next day so we got a good nights rest. Went there the next morning and got loaded. This load had a lot of extra time on it so we just stayed at the shipper to kill off several hours before heading out to Charleston, Sc. This would be our first delivery to Charleston AFB.

 I always hate going to a military base for the first time because you never know what you are going to run into. Some of them have multiple gates and depending on what you are hauling, there may be a specific gate that you have to enter through. Of course, nobody lets us know in advance. We have to find out the hard way. We got there and found what we thought was the correct gate. Wrong. The guard wouldn't let us in and directed us to a different gate. It was about a 10 mile drive to the next gate in bumper to bumper traffic. We got there and the guard let us in and told us how to get to the building our paperwork showed as our delivery point. We drove to it, went in to check in and were informed that we were not supposed to be allowed in that area with the freight that we were hauling. That guard called someone and informed them that the guard at the gate had mistakenly let us in and now we needed a police escort to get us to where we needed to be. I pointed out to him that our paperwork showed this building that we were at as where we were supposed to be and suggested that whoever sets these loads up should be informed to use a different address or include specific directions on where they want the drivers to go. I guess they think we're psychic or something. The police came along and escorted us across the flight line to where we were to get unloaded. About an hour and a half later we were out of there. Now in the future we will know where to go. Unless they change the rules before our return.

At this point, we were out of legal hours to work so we headed to a truck stop to spend a couple of days and get some much needed rest. We ate, showered, and I think I slept for about 15 hours straight. I slept most of the next day too. I didn't know how tired I was until I got there. I guess your mind knows when you need to keep going and when you can rest and you don't even realize it. We met a nice couple at the truck stop who was asking questions about the company we are leased on with. These people had just gotten back into driving after 2 and a half years away from driving. The husband had fallen off the flat bed he drove while tarping a load and got some serious injuries. They ended up losing their truck, their house, pretty much everything. I hate to see things like that happen to people who are just trying to work and make a living. Their goal is to save up enough to buy their own truck again. I hope they make it and I think they will.

After our break was over, we got a load picking up in Weaverville, NC delivering in Livonia, Mi. Non government, no special requirements. The only difficult thing about this one was driving through the freaking mountains. We can't seem to get away from them. We delivered that load, went to Meijers and stocked up the truck and drove to the truck stop. We were fueling up when our phone started ringing off the hook. Our qc started going crazy with messages also. Load offers from about 3 or 4 different dispatchers at the same time. The one we ended up taking was picking up in Jackson, Mi in a couple of hours and driving straight through to Maxton, Nc. Yep, back the way we came, more mountains!!

  On the trip down, John noticed one of our steer tires had a cut on the outside edge. We knew we could complete the delivery, but after that, we were going to need to get it changed. We delivered the load, drove about a hundred miles up to Kenly, NC and got a new set of steer tires and an alignment done. While changing the steers, they noticed that one of our tie rod ends was bad, so we had them change both of those while they were at it. The next day we went to the Speedco and had the maintenance done and then went to the Blue Beacon for a truck wash. Now she's riding smooth and looking mighty shiny!

Dispatch called us the next morning before we were even out of bed with a load offer picking up on Friday delivering on Monday. It's a whopping 15 pounds. So we are hauling our 15 pounder 2300 miles across the country.  We are on that load now, having to take our time on it because we can't deliver till Monday, but that's okay. We don't mind not having to push it. We will end up in the Northwest so we will see what happens from there. We have decided to stay out on the road instead of going home right now. We are enjoying the weather, the freight seems to be running strong right now, so we are hoping to get the bank account built up and take off later in the year. We will see how long we can stay out here!