Old Glory

While delivering fuel to our store in Keenesburg I decided to clean my windows. This was somewhat of a daunting task in that I had been up in the mountains earlier in the evening and it had snowed, and CDOT used Magnesium Chloride (Mag) on the roads as a de-icer. Mag is oily and greasy, and very difficult to clean off of windows. Many paper towels later I had somewhat accomplished the task.

Being a conscientious individual, I took my dirty towels over to the dumpster to discard them. For whatever reason something caught my eye and I turned my flashlight on to see what was within.

There, lying amongst the discarded boxes and bags of trash was “Old Glory”. Upon further examination I determined the reason She was in there was because the wooden standard to which She was attached was broken.

To my shame, with all of my American ingenuity, I could not figure out a way to get Her out of that despicable predicament. I could not find a way to climb into the dumpster, and if I did, how would I get back out? I am no longer a “spring chicken”. The tools that I had available could not snag or grab Her to hoist Her out.

Alas, Old Glory was destined to be buried unceremoniously in an unmarked grave.

Today, 9-11 still weighs heavy in my heart. Add to that two major situations this week, the bombing in Boston and the explosion in Waco, and then to see “The abstraction of the Union… that millions of people would fight for, and many thousands die for”, “Old Glory”, so carelessly cast away, grieved me so.

When a flag is so tattered that it can no longer serve as a symbol of the United States of America, it should be destroyed in a dignified manner, preferably by burning. The American Legion and other organizations regularly conduct flag retirement ceremonies, often on Flag Day, June 14. Also, modern nylon or polyester flags should be recycled due to hazardous gases produced when such materials are burned.


Is this what our great country, the United States of America, has become? To not give an iota as to the relevance, the power, the symbolism of Old Glory? To just cast Her away with the daily garbage? Have we finally lost complete and total respect for the oldest and most beloved Veteran of our country that we cannot give Her a proper and respectful send off?

Not knowing how “Old Glory” got into that predicament, I cannot cast stones at anyone. But I will ask any and all that, from this point forward, if you are an American citizen or if you love this country, if there is an American flag that has seen better days, please treat “Old Glory” with respect and have her properly retired.

You wouldn’t want to end up in a dumpster, would you?

The New Look

It started out as an experiment a couple of years ago.  I drive the Colorado High Country on a regular basis as part of my job delivering fuel to mountain locations.  Without getting too carried away with all of the aspects of the job, it can get darned cold at times!  So I decided to let my hair grow out "a bit" for extra insulation. 

IT was all well-and-good until one day Bill, another fuel hauler, made a comment about his hair, or the lack thereof, to the effect that "it is what it is".  And so I took his word for it: I decided to let my hair grow, and it would be "what it is". 

Sometimes a person gets a vision as to what they think they "should" look like.  I had just such a vision.  Thanks to my Lady Friend, she was able to get a pretty good representation of my vision:

I think I look good!  Coulda done without the Bluetooth in the pic.  My Sister will definitely have something to say about this. 

Anyway, I've cleaned up a bit since then.  May wash the coat some day.  It's a work coat and gets grungy quickly, and I don't like to wash it often since it's waterproofed.  As bulky as it is, it's too hard on the dryer.  The hat is leather; standard work fare for me.  Guys at the rack don't recognize me if I don't wear the hat!  It's water proofed and keeps the snow and rain off of my face and from going down my neck. 

Real difference between this one and the blog profile pic.  Guess I'll have to update it. 

Ok, as my Lady say, "Enough of me talking about me.  How about you talk about me for a while?"! 

Until next time, keep the rubber side down. 

Vacation 2013

Busy is good, but too busy may not be.  I went to Florida the middle of February and only now am getting around to blogging about it. 

Since Mom died last year, I don't need to go to Florida in June to celebrate her birthday any more.  My Sister's and my birthdays are in February, so I decided to split the difference and went between the two dates. 

I had purchased the airplane ticket at least two months in advance of going, and had a red-eye flight.  Big mistake.  Long layover in Charlotte.  However, the redeeming part of it all was the fact that there was two(count them, TWO!) major snow storms to hit Colorado and the front range while I was gone.  The first hit the same day I landed in Florida.  Broke my heart!  The sun was shining, the birds were chirping...  Ah, it was almost heaven. 

I had forewarned my Sister that she would probably not recognize me.  While waiting for her to pick me up at the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport, I walked across the "road" to chat with a traffic cop that had to keep chasing people out of the no parking zones.  Small airport: the loading/unloading of passengers are the same areas.  So when I saw her driving down the road towards me, I stepped out from the curb and proceeded to wait for her to stop.  She did after she had run me over two or three times.  The look on her face was priceless. 

The story of the "new look" will be the next blog, or thereabouts.

She did pick me up, and we had a wonderful week. 

Since the Daytona 500 was running that weekend, we decided to go visit my Aunt Audrey first. 

She is 90 years olde and doing very well!

Then, since I had not been to the farthest south-eastern point in the United States, we went on a boat trip to Key West.  The wind in our hair and the sun on our faces left a lasting impression; we both got wind and sun burned!  But it was worth it; I finally got there! 

A picture is worth a thousand words!  AND I got to see mile "0" on highway 1:

And of course, I ate a lot.  One of my favorites was the Key West Key Lime Pie:

You can just see the sunburn at the hair line where I didn't get any sunscreen. 

I want to thank my Sister, Connie, for a wonderful, warm, eventful, relaxing, and fun vacation.  I also accomplished a lot: she let me tinker around her house, fixing things that needed to be fixed.  I so very much miss that, and do really enjoy it!  Hopefully, in a near future blog, I'll be able to report on my being able to sate my 'tinker-itis' here in Greeley. 

In the meantime, keep the rubber side down.

The New Book

Well, it's "finally" done!  Or so I hope.

Pyro-Vortex is now available as a paperback.  Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Pyro-Vortex-Fire-Tornado-Scott-Murray/dp/147525430X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358618383&sr=1-1&keywords=Pyro-Vortex

Literally, it has taken about 15 years for the book to finally 'materialize'.  Yes, I had the E-book available a while back, but it's nothing like being able to hold a "real" book in your hands.  I guess I'm olde fashioned, in that I like the feel and experience of holding and reading a book that is in my hands. 

There's a glitch in the CreateSpace formatting, where the template we use to build a book doesn't convert cleanly to their PDF format.  I tried to communicate that to them, but...  Once I was able to determine what the glitch was, I was able to adapt accordingly to make things work. 

Frustrating. 

But the end justifies the means. 

And it's so cool to be able to tell people that I just ordered 25 of my books!

Now to market the book. 

I took a class this past week on Public Speaking, offered by Joe Sabah of Denver.  He's been holding these classes for over 30 years so I hope he knows what he's talking about.  So with this new information I will be able to start doing some of that.  Most places do not pay for a speaker, but we get "paid" by selling our book(s).  And of course, the more speaking you do, the better you get, and the more you are in demand.  That is, of course, if you've got a subject that interests your audience.  Time will tell. 

I'm also going to set up a Facebook account.  Pray for me.

Y'all take care and keep the rubber side down.

Four Carot Diamond Ring

I am sure everybody has heard the olde cliche's about "Love at first sight", and people going gaga, falling in Love over the holidays.  Well, maybe I'm not as unique as I thought I was.  Or, maybe I am. 

I gave my Lady a Four Carot Diamond Ring for Hannakah. 

Ok, call me crazy.  Just don't call me late for dinner! 

The cute little pooch is a Skye Terrier.  He LOVES playing rope!  He also approves of the ring! 

That's all for now.  Too busy to blog, but got this out! 

Merry Chirstmas and Happy New Year to y'all.

Bigotry

I like to think of myself as open minded and not a bigot, although there have been moments...

I have a Lady friend that is Jewish; for the sake of this blog I'll call her Gretchen.  Very intelligent woman, educated, accomplished, and I think, cute! 

I also had an Egyptian friend who is Muslim; for the sake of this blog I'll call him Hansel. 
One day Gretchen came to Greeley and we decided to go out to dinner at a soup place I like called Pho Duy on 23rd Avenue in Greeley.  Earlier in the day I had talked to Hansel about the possibility of us having dinner together.  He really likes Pho Duy and stated that he might be able to meet us there. 

Well, Gretchen and I got to the restaurant, ordered, had our meal, and Hansel showed up with his wife and her daughter.  Since the table we were sitting at was small, we decided to get a bigger round corner table to accommodate all of us.  I made introductions and we moved to the bigger table. 

We sat there making small talk, with the little darling being a pain in the arse, but that's another story.  This was shortly after the Egyptian elections with the Muslim Brotherhood taking control. 

Gretchen asked Hansel about the turmoil in his homeland.  His answer was almost mechanical, "I don't know what's going on over there.  All I want to do is work, make a living and take care of my family."  As soon as I heard that, warning bells started going off in my head.  Gretchen continued to try to engage Hansel in friendly discussion, and whenever she asked a politically weighted question, he would answer, almost word-for-word, "I don't know what's going on over there.  All I want to do is work, make a living and take care of my family."

Gretchen also tried to ask Hansel a question in Arabic (?).  When she did, he looked at her like she had sprouted a couple of heads with horns on them!  Gretchen was married at one time to a man from the Middle East, who was Muslim, and had learned a fair share of the language.  At his lack of response, Gretchen got up from the table to use the restroom.  I could tell she was getting agitated with Hansel. 

While she was gone, Hansel turned to me and asked me, "What the F*** are you doing dating a Jew?"  I didn't think I heard him right, since he was somewhat whispering, and my brain didn't want to accept the question, so I asked him, "What?"  He repeated himself, and I "got it". 

When Gretchen got back to the table, I had had enough.  I turned to Hansel and told him in so many words, that I couldn't believe that he didn't have an opinion about what was going on in his home country, since we had talked about such things, even the previous week.  I didn't appreciate him lying to Gretchen and I, and acting like such a dumbass!  With that I turned to Gretchen and suggested we "partake of our abscence", meaning, leave. 

I waited until we were out in the car and had left the parking lot when I told her what Hansel had said when she was in the bathroom.  She was livid, and rightfully so.  I was too, but controlled myself. 

Now a few points to make. 

When we were talking and Hansel answered with his stock answer, I "heard warning bells going off in my head" because of some of the E-mails I had gotten about the "Muslim Threat" and Sharia Law.  I TRY to take all the E-mails I get with a very big grain of salt, meaning that I don't necessarily buy in to whatever they are promoting.  Some of them had been about the "Muslim Threat" and Sharia Law being forced into our laws, with one stating that radical Muslims, if threatened or "cornered", will say, "I don't know...  All I want to do is work, make a living and take care of my family."  It is a stock line that they are told to use to disarm their opponents.  Word for word, this is the answer Hansel had given us.  So now I wonder if he's a radical Muslim. 

The next point is: No matter what you think of a man's girlfriend, you don't say anything about her!  I could be dating a hairy circus midget covered in tattoos, but you don't diss on my woman!  Hansel broke that rule big time. 

Finally, I wonder: What was Hansel thinking?  He knew I was dating a Jewish woman.  If he was so bigoted, then why did he agree to meet us for dinner, albeit late?  If he has so much hatred towards Jews, why did he show up? 

I haven't talked to Hansel since that day.  I told my boss about what happened, and he said that he never did trust Hansel.  He also stated that if he sees Hansel again, he'll give him a piece of his mind, and he's not welcomed down at our shop; he'll call the police! 

I know a couple of Muslim Fuel Haulers, and they're very nice, hard working men.  I also know a few Muslim store owners who wouldn't give me the time of day. 

Fortunately, this one incident hasn't made me Muslim-phobic. 

It has, however, made me very aware. 

I Killed Bullwinkles Wife

I really didn't mean to.
She just, kinda, came out of nowhere. 

I was heading west on I-70 in the mountain town of Vail, going to our store in Avon to make a delivery.

My truck was fully loaded with 8,000 gallons of highly flammable liquid, specifically, if memory serves, 6,500 gallons of Unleaded gasoline, and 1,500 gallons of #2 Diesel.  Gross weight of truck: 80,000#

It was a bit drizzly, but visibility was good.  Just then, in front of me, appeared a large animal going from my right to the left.  It had just about cleared the path in front of me, to the left, so I wiggled the steering wheel a bit to the right to avoid the animal.  At that same instant another animal was there, in front of me, to my right.  I again teased the steering wheel back to the left to avoid this animal, and was almost successful.

In a fuel tanker you can't jerk the steering wheel to avoid a collision as you might in an automobile.  The liquid basically stays in one place when the vehicle is moved suddenly, and sloshes back to the other side of the tank when you correct, thereby possibly causing a roll-over.  So any movement has to be quick and limiting, or just smooth and graceful.  The front of the tractor can be wiggled from side-to-side without affecting the trailer, and that is what I was trying to accomplish.

Just about as I was passing it, through the windshield, I saw the animal rear up on its hind legs, looking like it was trying to avoid hitting my truck.  I didn't hit it, it hit me.  Just behind the passenger door, missing the hood, fender, air cleaner, windshield, mirror assembly, and passsenger door.  Instead it hit the exhaust stack, denting the stack cover, which is stainless steel, the aluminum step handle, and the bottom of the exhaust stack.  It then hit the fuel tank, denting it.  It also took the cap off of the marker light, sparing the bulb!  The animal spun around and hit the trailer fender over the drive axles, mangling it. 

I saw the animal, after it had hit the drive axles, spin away off to the shoulder.  I immediately hit the brakes and brought the truck to a not-too-casual stop.  Looking in my rear-view mirror, I could see the animal laying along the side of the highway, not moving. 

I immediately called the police, reported that I had hit an elk, then went out to inspect the truck for damage. 

The last elk that I had hit came out of the woods and ran in front of me in full daylight.  I was empty, just having made a delivery in Fairplay.  I tried to miss it, but didn't have enough room on the shoulder without going over the edge.  That accident caused $15,000 worth of damage to the truck.  The elk paid dearly with its life. 

The Vail Police showed up almost immediately, back behind me where the animal lay.  And there they sat.  I was getting impatient waiting for them, when they finally came up to my truck. 

The Officers I dealt with were very polite, courteous, almost to the point of being friendly.  Yes, I know, "Police" and "friendly" in the same sentence is almost an oxy-moron.  But I've dealt with many of the Law Emforcement Personnel in that area over the years, and have to admit that they are some of the nicest people around! 

As I found out, it was a small female moose that I had hit.  Somebody guessed it to be about 800#.  I got lucky; not so much the moose.  The impact had broken all four of her legs, and the delay of the Police to get up to my truck was because they had to euthanize her.  Bummer. 

So, that's how I Killed Bullwinkles Wife.